South Africa: Eritrean gets urgent order to process travel forms

A refugee from Eritrea has obtained an urgent North Gauteng High Court order to force Home Affairs to supply him with application forms and to immediately process his application for travel documents so that he can attend a peace conference in Djibouti next month. Tsehaye Yoel Alem applied for a court order with the help of Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) after being told Home Affairs no longer issued refugee travel documents as the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees no longer provided such documents. He said there was no certainty as to what Home Affairs was doing to reinstate the issuing of refugee travel documents and it in effect meant it was almost impossible for refugees like himself to travel outside SA.