Home Affairs needs refugee reality check

Cape Town:  While the Department of Home Affairs’ refugee centre in Cape Town continues to refuse to accept first-time applications for refugee status, and while the centre has been in such chaos – with police dispersing huge crowds of vulnerable asylum seekers who are trying to get documented – the same department’s immigration officials have embarked on large immigration raids. Is this an indication that the department has prioritised deportation over service delivery? I cannot understand how the department thinks that deportation of people to Zimbabwe or other SADC countries will achieve anything; we might as well be flushing taxpayers’ money down the toilet – or, rather, spending it on toilets.