S/Africa to shut down refugee reception centre in Cape Town.

Published On: Monday, May, 07 2012 - 15:31:35 This post has been viewed 701 times

South African Home Affairs has announced that it will shut down a refugee reception centre in Western Cape city of Cape Town, raising outrage from asylum seekers including Somalis.

Department of Refugee Affairs said the centre which offers services to over 200 Somalis will be moved to a border town.

Sheikh Abdirashid Afi, an official with the Somali community in South Africa told Sunatimes that officials from the UN refugee agency met Home Affairs department to discuss the issue and requested the government not to shut down the centre.

He said they will move to court to block the closure of the refugee centre saying that they are waiting official statement from the concerned department on whether the facility will be closed or not.

The department has been pushing for the closure of such facilities in order to scale down influx of refugees into the country but the move was criticized by human rights organisations and refugees themselves.

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