How asylum seekers are cash cows for corrupt officials

22 November 2016 - 16:21 By Staff Writer
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A new report by Corruption Watch alleges endemic corruption in the Department of Home Affairs.

In Project Lokisa: Asylum at a Price‚ Corruption Watch says it has received 314 complaints since 2012‚ relating to applications for asylum or refugee status and other immigration-related processes.

The report says 80% of these complaints involved refugee reception offices‚ where staff involved include home affairs officials‚ security guards‚ administrators and interpreters.

Police — metro and South African Police Service officers — were implicated in 17%.

Demands for bribes for issuing asylum and refugee permits accounted for 74%.

SA has the highest number of pending asylum claims‚ with 1‚096‚100 people waiting for their claims to be processed.

That is about a third of the global total of 3.2-million.

Corruption Watch executive director David Lewis says those asking for bribes vary from the security guard who extracts R100 for allowing the refugee to enter the gate of the documentation centre‚ to the Department of Home Affairs official who is custodian of the vital final stamp and whose fee is often measured in thousands of rand.

"Our simple request to the Department of Home Affairs is that they work with us. This doesn’t require extra resources from the department. Mutual empathy with the plight of the most vulnerable members of our society is all that is needed‚" Lewis says.

Corruption Watch said in a statement that Home Affairs had in the past failed to respond to any of the organisation’s attempts to alert it to complaints of corruption received from foreign nationals.

Corruption Watch last week opened criminal cases at the Johannesburg Central Police station against three individuals implicated in corrupt activities at Marabastad refugee reception office.

TMG Digital/BusinessLive

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