Why Hundreds of Asylum Seekers Were Turned Away From Durban Home Affairs

Hundreds of foreign nationals seeking asylum in Durban were turned away from a Home Affairs refugee reception centre on Thursday, 8 October 2026, after police ordered those outside the Che Guevara Road facility to leave. According to Newsroom ZA, the move came as tensions rose around the centre and officers said there were safety concerns while anti-immigration protesters gathered nearby.

The scene was not a one-off. Eyewitness News, as cited by Newsroom ZA, reported that the centre had been disrupted for several days by protests. The Durban Refugee Reception Centre has become a regular flashpoint for groups pushing for stricter immigration enforcement, and the pressure outside the building meant many applicants could not proceed with their asylum applications that morning.

Newsroom ZA reports that some protesters arrived carrying sticks and sjamboks, which added to the concern around the site. That detail matters because it helps explain why police decided to clear the area rather than allow the queue to continue forming outside the centre. Once the area was emptied, hundreds of people were left without access to the application process for that day.

Among the protesters were members of March and March. The organisation’s head of legal, Xolani Zuma, argued that some foreign nationals were taking advantage of the asylum system after living in South Africa for years without applying for refugee protection. Newsroom ZA notes, however, that those claims about the applicants’ immigration histories have not been independently established.

The Durban incident sits inside a bigger legal shift. Newsroom ZA reports that the protests followed a Constitutional Court judgment delivered on 7 July 2026, which declared several parts of the Refugees Act unconstitutional. The court found that some procedural barriers stopping certain foreign nationals from applying for asylum were not consistent with constitutional protections.

After that judgment, the Department of Home Affairs instructed refugee reception offices to accept asylum applications from people seeking protection, regardless of how they entered South Africa. The department said carrying out the ruling was a constitutional obligation. In practical terms, that means the state must receive the application first, even if the person’s route into the country is disputed or politically sensitive.

It is also important to separate application access from refugee status. Newsroom ZA reports that the court ruling does not automatically make anyone a refugee. Each claim still has to be considered through the asylum process. That distinction sits at the heart of the current tension: people must be allowed to apply, but the outcome of each case is still decided later.

The developments have put more pressure on government. Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, who chairs the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration, has acknowledged that the ruling created challenges for the asylum system. According to Newsroom ZA’s reporting, the growing number of applicants has added strain on Home Affairs, while police stayed outside the Durban facility after the foreign nationals left.

What happened in Durban shows how immigration enforcement, public safety and access to the asylum process are now colliding in the same space. For applicants, the problem is immediate and practical: if a centre is shut down or cleared, the chance to submit a claim disappears for that day. For authorities, the challenge is balancing access to a legal process with order outside the building. Newsroom ZA’s report places Thursday’s incident squarely at that point of strain.