Congolese woman can stay – judge

The Western Cape High Court in Cape Town has stepped in to halt the deportation of a Congolese woman who fled her war-torn country as a child more than a decade ago, after her father was killed in front of her.

The woman, identified in court papers as LM, came to South Africa in 2007.

She was granted a temporary asylum seeker’s permit but her birth year was apparently incorrectly recorded as 1987, instead of 1994. In 2014, when she wanted new papers in order to study, the department of home affairs accused her of having lied.

Two years later, following an unsuccessful bid to appeal the decision, the woman was ordered to leave the country. But instead, she turned to the court.

In her papers, she spoke of her memories, eroded by time, of growing up in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), surrounded by “horrendous violence”.

“My father was killed in our house right in front of me. It is a miracle that they did not also kill my mother and me. Instead, they just took some of our possessions and left. But the violence continued... Our neighbour’s house was even set on fire,” she said.

When she was 12, her terrified mother sent her to South Africa.

“I do recall my mother handing me over to my auntie, also a DRC national who was my mother’s sister, who took me with her own child to South Africa when her husband was killed…

“Although there was no direct threat on my life – as in, nobody had yet tried to kill me – my mother and I both were afraid that it would happen. As my aunt could not afford to take us both out of the DRC, my mother allowed me to go and she stayed behind.”

Despite not being able to speak English when she first arrived, the woman has since built a life in South Africa and said she was not able to return to the DRC while “political unrest and slaughter of civilians” continued.

“To remain or return is simply perilous and accordingly most patently a physical risk to my own person. I submit that I would be at an even greater risk as I am no longer familiar with my country...”

In court, the department argued her date of birth, more specifically whether she was still a minor at the time she arrived, were still in question.

Judge Patrick Gamble said this issue had effectively become moot.

He described the department’s papers as “largely made up of rote allegations” and said there was no attempt to provide any “substantive” reasons for the decision to refuse the woman asylum.

He found the decision was irrational and set it aside, sending her application back to the department to be reconsidered.