South Africans deserve an immigration and asylum system that is lawful, controlled, transparent and accountable to the public.

Our country is already facing extremely high unemployment, poverty, violent crime, pressure on public services and serious capacity constraints within the state. At the same time, weaknesses in border management, corruption involving immigration documentation, lengthy asylum backlogs and ineffective enforcement have severely damaged public confidence in the immigration system.

The Constitutional Court’s July 2026 judgment in Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town v Minister of Home Affairs means that a person may not be prevented from lodging an asylum application merely because they entered South Africa unlawfully, failed to report at a port of entry or did not previously comply with certain procedural requirements.

We respect the authority of the Constitutional Court. However, the judgment makes it even more urgent for Parliament and Home Affairs to ensure that access to the asylum process does not become an alternative immigration route for people who do not genuinely qualify for refugee protection.

South Africans are entitled to ask difficult questions.

Who is applying for asylum? How are their identities and travel histories being verified? How quickly are claims decided? How many applications are rejected? How many people whose claims are finally rejected are actually removed? What measures prevent economic migrants from abusing the asylum system?

There are also legitimate questions about accountability.

The Constitutional Court strongly criticised aspects of Home Affairs’ handling of the Scalabrini litigation. At the same time, Parliament has already acknowledged public concerns about potential conflicts of interest involving members of the Immigration Advisory Board and has sought legal advice on the matter.

South Africans deserve complete transparency.

What we are asking for

We call on Parliament and the Department of Home Affairs to:

• Urgently reform South Africa’s asylum and immigration legislation.
• Introduce a constitutionally compliant First Safe Country principle.
• Require immediate biometric registration, identity verification and appropriate security screening of asylum applicants.
• Properly examine applicants’ travel and immigration histories.
• Introduce accelerated procedures for clearly unfounded, fraudulent or abusive claims while preserving lawful due process.
• Establish strict and reasonable deadlines for asylum decisions and appeals.
• Enforce removal after a claim has been finally rejected and no other lawful right to remain exists.
• Strengthen South Africa’s borders and entry/exit systems.
• Investigate and prosecute officials and intermediaries involved in immigration-document corruption.
• Publish regular statistics showing applications, nationalities, approvals, rejections, backlogs and removals.
• Conduct parliamentary oversight into Home Affairs’ handling of the Scalabrini litigation.
• Ensure complete disclosure and proper management of potential conflicts of interest on the Immigration Advisory Board.

South Africa can fulfil its constitutional and international obligations towards genuine refugees without operating an asylum system that is uncontrolled, vulnerable to abuse or disconnected from the country’s capacity.

This petition is not asking Parliament to defy or overturn the Constitutional Court. We are asking Parliament to exercise its own constitutional powers to legislate, conduct oversight and hold the executive accountable.

South Africans deserve secure borders. Genuine refugees deserve a functional asylum system. Those who abuse that system should not be rewarded. And government must be accountable to the citizens it serves.