Permanent Residence For Qualified Refugees

Section 27(d) – Refugee Status

It is important to appreciate that there is a marked difference between an asylum seeker and a recognised refugee.

Permanent residence on this category is applicable only to those recognised refugees who have qualified for refugee status and complied with the Refugees Act in terms of section 27(c) having demonstrated 5 years of refugee status and can satisfactorily show the Standing Committee for Refugee Affairs (“SCRA”) that the refugee as the applicant will remain a refugee indefinitely.

In essence, such applicant who is a recognised refugee, will normally be from certain countries that are at war or where there is much political instability. Our SCRA are regrettably extremely conservative in positively affirming refugee status for the purposes of permanent residence and this then becomes a matter of litigation to force our home affairs to apply the law fairly.