A Port Elizabeth high court judge has declared the closure of the refugee centre in the city by the Department of Home Affairs as unlawful.
The ruling on Thursday by judge Jeremy Pickering followed an application by the Somali Association of South Africa and the Project for Conflict Resolution.
Judge Pickering ordered that the refugee asylum centre be re-opened with immediate effect.
His order has been seen as a victory by several groups that have been fighting the closure of the Sidon Street offices last year following complaints by neighbouring businesses.
Michael Bendle of the Project for Conflict Resolution says they welcome the judgement.
"The judgement sends out a clear message to Home Affairs that unilateral and unlawful decisions will not go unchallenged. The court decision means that the reception office in Lavinia Street in Port Elizabeth's North End must deal with both existing refugee and asylum seeker permit holders as well as new applicants. In October last year, Home Affairs just withdrew all services to new applicants," Bendle said.
The acting chairperson of Somali Association of South Africa EC, Abdirahaman Jilley, says in a statement that many thousands of refugees from the Eastern Cape as well as the Free State, Northern Cape and Southern Cape are serviced by the PE centre.
"New applicants and existing permit holders from all of these provinces faced the prospect of having to travel very long distances, and at great expense, to Durban or Cape Town or Pretoria to have their permits issued or extended," he says.
"It was going to put unbearable pressure on these already overburdened refugee reception offices who have been struggling to cope since the closure of the Johannesburg Office," says Jilley.
Black Sash's Eastern Cape Provincial Director Alexa Lane says the victory is credit to civil society who stood together against the abuse of state power.
"It is deeply distressing that these already traumatised people were treated with such disregard. To close the office down so suddenly, and without proper notice or consultation, showed a complete lack of compassion and respect for the basic rights of our most vulnerable members of society," says Lane.
The Department of Home Affairs was not available for comment late Thursday afternoon.
