The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has ordered the minister of Home Affairs to pay R300 000 to a refugee who was unlawfully arrested at one of the department's offices after he tried to apply for a re-issue of his refugee papers that had been stolen.
On 7 June 2017, Ntahompagaze Abdul was arrested on a charge of being an illegal immigrant after he went to the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) officers in Marabastad, Pretoria, to apply for his refugee documents - which he had lost during a robbery three days earlier.
According to a judgment handed down earlier in May, Abdul was arrested by members of the DHA. After that, he was handed over to members of the SA Police Service at the Pretoria Central Police Station, where he was detained for 13 days.