MPs demand answers on South Africa’s growing refugee appeals backlog
Deputy Minister Nzuza says the real bottleneck lies in the appeals system.
Parliament's home affairs committee has expressed concern over the growing backlog of South African refugee appeals, which has reached 161,000 cases. Despite a reported 12% reduction, MPs questioned the definition of "backlog" and the funding gaps that may be contributing to the issue. Deputy Minister Njabulo Nzuza told parliament that asylum applications were being processed on time at the first instance, but the real bottleneck lay in the appeals system, which he described as an "unending blue-sky appeal process".
Standing Committee for Refugee Affairs (SCRA) chairperson Jane Mugwena stated that the committee had exceeded 90% of its review target, while the Refugee Appeals Authority (RA) painted a starker picture, with active appeals dropping from 79,870 to 70,976 cases. MPs pushed back on the department's framing, questioning the sustainability of relying on UNHCR-funded advocates and requesting a clear projected completion date for clearing the backlog.
Brief written by urgent.news from The Citizen's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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