Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Refugee Rights Centre, The Refugee Rights Centre (RRC) was formally established in June 2010, when an agreement was signed with the UNHCR for the provision of funding.
The principal activities of the RRC includes:
- Undertaking measures to ensure effective legal remedies are available.
- Intervention in refugee status determination process.
- Provision of interventions in court cases.
- Conducting training for legal professionals and government officials.
The Centre operates in the human sector, focussing especially on Refugee Rights and Refugee protection in the Eastern Cape. It seeks to educate and inform refugee and local communities as well as public service providers about the rights and responsibilities of refugees and the obligations of Government departments in terms of the Refugee and Immigration Acts specifically, and the Constitution of South Africa and international legislation in general.
The objectives of the Centre include the provision of access to legal services to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in towns and cities of the Eastern Cape; creation of awareness among refugee communities about their legitimate rights and how to assert these; to ensure that women migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are rendered the rights and other services due to them under the Constitution; training of different Government department officials on Refugee and Immigration Law to ensure improved services to refugees by public officials, to contribute to the eradication of institutionalised xenophobia and to intervene in incidents of unlawful arrest of asylum seekers by law enforcement agencies.
