Despite the fact that the men were on a request list for a renewal of existing permits since July 1999, home affairs officials refused to renew them, saying they obtained the permits from an office closed down following investigations of permit fraud. It also said the men had initially entered South Africa with visitor and study visas and therefore did not qualify as asylum-seekers, and ordered that preparations be made for their deportation. This is a direct violation of international refugee protocol that states clearly that any person, regardless of whether they enter a country illegally or with valid permits, have a right to apply for asylum. Moreover, it is generally held that every rejected asylum-seeker should be given the right of appeal. Both police and home affairs have come under fire recently amid allegations of bribery, corruption and intimidation of refugees and asylum seekers.
People wait the entire day in queues without their permits being renewed, or even looked at.
Black Sash representative Uli Albrecht says the incompetence of the current system does a disservice to not only the applicants, but the department as well. Albrecht has been liaising with home affairs on behalf of the two men, and took them to the offices in an attempt to renew their permits without their getting arrested again. Many live in fear of being arrested on the streets of Johannesburg, where they say police do not bother to listen to explanations that they had been queuing fruitlessly outside the refugee affairs offices. Nguetchue and Tchiegue say they are too afraid to walk in the street, because their permits have expired and they risk being picked up and sent back to Lindela. I feel very insecure in South Africa.