Boost for refugee rights

The Refugee Rights Project at UCT's Faculty of Law will upgrade its teaching and research portfolios, thanks to a boost from the Foundation for Human Rights.

During 2011 the project will conduct research and produce reports on access to justice for victims of xenophobia, the right of refugees and asylum seekers to work in South Africa, litigating the rights of refugees in South Africa, and the future management of permanent residence for long-stay refugees.

The project will also use the new funding to run courses for an initiative known as Sustained Advocacy for Empowering Refugees (also known as SAFER), which is aimed at providing training on the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, and the mechanisms for rights enforcement. Refugee Rights Project director Fatima Khan said: "The refugee law course has attracted a steady stream of students, but funding was desperately required to complete our vision of 'practise, teach and research'. The Foundation's grant is greatly welcomed, as it will significantly elevate the project in the direction we aspire to go."