A Pretoria High Court order to grant 22 Afghans running away from the Taliban regime access to South Africa on asylum transit visas will stand.
The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has confirmed that Tuesday’s judgment is final, reported TimesLive.
The spokesperson for the Department f Home Affairs, Siya Qoza, was quoted as saying:
The DHA will abide by the ruling of the court and take all necessary steps to give effect to the ruling.
The DHA will deal with the asylum applications during the asylum process.
The decision to abide shows the DHA respects the rule of law. However, this should not be interpreted as opening floodgates for spurious asylum claims.
The DHA will not hesitate to fight the cases in court, as it has done in this instance.
Home Affairs had refused the Afghans entry into South Africa despite a court order that the government should grant them permission to seek asylum.
The order was issued after a United States-based Non-Governmental Organisation approached the High Court in Pretoria seeking the court to compel the SA government to grant asylum to the 22 Afghan nationals arguing that the group might be victimised by the Taliban regime.