Spending freezing night after freezing night on long queues, relieving themselves in nearby bushes and being on the receiving end of insults from security guards - that's the ordeal faced by refugees at the Department of Home Affairs' offices.

The department's refugee reception centre in Johannesburg was closed at the beginning of this month after a court ruled that the unsanitary conditions there were negatively affecting on businesses.

The only office remaining in the province is in the western Pretoria suburb of Marabastad, where applicants spend days in the queue.

Yesterday, an epileptic seizure ended Thobekile Dube's quest to have her asylum permit renewed.

Dube, 33, had been queuing with her one-year-old daughter since Saturday. By the time she came to, it was too late.

"I pleaded with security guards to let me in, but my pleas fell on deaf ears and was instead told to come back tomorrow because the three hours allocated for renewals had lapsed," she said.

"It is painfully cold here at night and I fear for my baby's health because I only have one blanket. But there is nothing I can do because I will be deported if I do not get my papers in order."

Dube is one of hundreds of immigrants forced to queue for days outside the centre, which only accepts 150 applications a day.

Mercy Muguzumbi, 23, arrived on Sunday and spent the night in the open veld with her nine-month-old baby girl. She was not among the 150 allowed in.

"Sunday night was so cold and my baby cried non-stop. I had to burn a car tyre to keep warm, but today she is coughing terribly and our clothes are blackened by the smoke from the fire," she said.

"The security guards tell us that we stink and that we must go and take a bath and come back again. They are making fun of us. Where do they expect us to do this?"

Gabriel Shumba, chairman of Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, said the conditions at the Marabastad office were inhumane and degrading.

He said he was shocked when he visited the centre last week.

"One of them had his legs rested on the table while people in the hall complained that they had been waiting for three hours for the officials to assist them. Their lack of professionalism is causing people unnecessary misery," Shumba said.