South Africa

A new immigration center located a few minutes from the South Africa-Zimbabwe border could help legalize tens of thousands of asylum seekers and ease a government backlog in the hundreds of thousands. The new Refugee Reception Center in Mussina, South Africa – 10km south of Beitbridge in Zimbabwe – has registered about 3,600 asylum seekers in less than two months for the temporary residence permits they will need to remain legal while their cases are decided. At the current rate, the Mussina center will process about 10 percent of South Africa’s yearly intake of asylum seekers in the next 12 months. (IRIN)