ASYLUM SEEKERS: MINISTERS RESPOND TO MISINFORMATION ON JULY CONSTITUTIONAL COURT RULING

ASYLUM SEEKERS: MINISTERS RESPOND TO MISINFORMATION ON JULY CONSTITUTIONAL COURT RULING

• 08 October 2026
• Home Affairs
• SA Legal Academy

The inter-ministerial committee on migration has issued a comprehensive media statement on ‘recent developments’ in the context of a July 2026 Constitutional Court ruling on certain sections of the 1998 Refugees Act. The statement followed a Department of Home Affairs press release responding to a ‘disinformation campaign’ targeting ‘the operational processing of asylum applications’.

According to the inter-ministerial committee statement:

• while the ruling focuses on ‘procedural restoration’, the authorities concerned will continue to conduct ‘rigorous merit assessments’.
• specific sections of the Act were found to ‘prevent some individuals from accessing the asylum system solely on procedural grounds’, including where such an individual:
  • had ‘entered the country irregularly’
  • ‘did not possess an asylum transit visa’, or
  • had ‘failed to report to a refugee reception office within the prescribed period’
• ‘the Court found that these procedural barriers could result in asylum seekers being excluded from the asylum process without their claims being properly assessed on their merits’
• ‘the judgment reaffirmed South Africa’s constitutional and international obligations, particularly the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the return of a person to a country where they may face persecution, conflict, or serious harm’
• the judgment does not:
  • imply ‘broadened status’ for affected refugees and asylum seekers
  • grant such persons the right to vote
  • ‘grant refugee status or permanent residence automatically to anyone who enters South Africa
  • ‘legalise unlawful migration’, or
  • ‘confer new rights to asylum seekers’
• the ruling ‘simply requires that individuals claiming asylum be allowed access to the asylum determination process so that their claims can be properly assessed in terms of the law’
• applications that are fraudulent, abusive, unfounded or do not meet the requirements of the Refugees Act will still be rejected through the established legal processes’
• government ‘retains its full sovereign right and duty to enforce the (2002) Immigration Act’, and
• ‘those found to be abusing the asylum process or failing to meet the legal definition of a refugee will continue to face lawful deportation once due process has been completed’.

Please click the links below for more information:

• inter-ministerial committee media statement
• Department of Home Affairs media statement
• Constitutional Court ruling

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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