South Africa withdraws asylum directive after violent protests

• The director-general withdrew a 28 September directive to refugee reception offices on processing asylum applications.
• At least 24 vehicles were burned in Soweto and Durban on Thursday, and shops were looted.
• The department says it will devise a new way to comply with the court ruling; it has not set out what offices should do in the meantime.

South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs said on Friday that its director-general had withdrawn the directive, which told refugee reception offices to accept applications from people previously blocked by procedural requirements. The department said offices were overwhelmed within days, staff had been put at risk and threats to public safety had emerged. Those are the department’s stated reasons for the withdrawal. It did not specify when it took effect or publish replacement instructions.¹

The move came a day after protests in Soweto and Durban turned violent. The Associated Press reported that 10 vehicles were burned in Soweto and 14 in Durban, with shops looted. In Soweto, police said they received reports of shots fired towards protesters before vehicles were set alight; the person alleged to have fired and the vehicle owners had not been identified. AP reported that no injuries had been reported at the time of publication, not that a full injury count had been confirmed.²

Police reported three arrests in Durban. Mail & Guardian said the three foreign nationals were accused of assaulting a protester; police said the incident might have contributed to the unrest. Mail & Guardian also reported several arrests in Soweto related to alleged looting, without giving a number.³

The withdrawal concerns an operational instruction, not the court ruling. On 7 July, the Constitutional Court ruled against provisions that could prevent asylum seekers’ claims from being assessed on their merits because of procedural failures, including irregular entry or missed reporting deadlines. The judgment remains binding, and Home Affairs says it remains committed to complying with it.⁴

That distinction matters to people trying to lodge claims. The court opened access to an individual assessment; it did not automatically grant refugee status or permanent residence. Before Friday’s withdrawal, a government committee had said offices should not deny access on the basis of quotas, administrative restrictions or missing documents before an application was lodged. That was the instruction reported on Thursday; Home Affairs has not clarified what reception offices should do now.⁵

Footnotes

1. South African Department of Home Affairs, 9 October 2026. ↩

2. Associated Press, “Vehicles torched in South Africa during protests over asylum ruling”. ↩

3. Mail & Guardian, “Home Affairs withdraws asylum directive as Schreiber defends reversal”. ↩

4. Constitutional Court of South Africa, Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town and Another v Minister of Home Affairs and Others; South African Department of Home Affairs, 9 October 2026. ↩

5. South African government, Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration statement, 8 October 2026; Mail & Guardian, 9 October 2026. ↩