Court mandates Home Affairs to provide Nigerian woman with refugee interview following flawed application riddled with factual errors.
The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban ordered the Department of Home Affairs to give a Nigerian woman an opportunity to attend a "good cause" interview to pursue her refugee claim, while sharply criticising her legal representatives for submitting what the court described as a deeply flawed application riddled with factual errors, inconsistencies and poor drafting.
Judge Malcolm Wallis ruled that Home Affairs must, within 60 days, provide Chetachi Christie Uduogu with a good cause interview before the department's Immigration Services Inspectorate.
Uduogu, a Nigerian citizen seeking refugee status in South Africa, approached the court seeking an order compelling Home Affairs to grant her a good cause interview so that her asylum claim could be assessed.
By the time the matter was argued, Home Affairs had already agreed to an order substantially allowing the interview, leaving only the issue of costs for the court to determine. The judge nevertheless examined the merits of the application because of the unusual order ultimately granted against the applicant's legal team.
