The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the significant progress made by the Department of Home Affairs, under Minister Leon Schreiber, to reduce the backlog of appeals lodged by unsuccessful applicants for refugee status, cutting the backlog by more than 19,000 in just one year.
This is the largest reduction in years and another important milestone in rebuilding a functional and humane asylum system, under Minister of Home Affairs, the DA’s Leon Schreiber.
Minister Schreiber has made sure that the capacity in the Department to adjudicate these appeals has been increased, along with increasing the regularity of hearings, to speed up the process.
This forms part of moving towards a fully digitised asylum process that will eliminate many of the delays associated with paper-based systems.
The reforms introduced by Minister Schreiber are demonstrating that it is possible to both treat legitimate asylum seekers fairly and efficiently while restoring the integrity of the immigration system.
During 2025, the active appeals caseload declined by more than 12%, while the longstanding ring-fenced backlog, which had accumulated over more than two decades, was reduced by 19 064 cases during the 2025/26 financial year, representing a 14.2% reduction and marking significant progress in restoring efficiency and integrity to South Africa’s asylum appeals system.
For years before Minister Schreiber, genuine asylum seekers were trapped in an inefficient system characterised by years of delays, uncertainty and administrative dysfunction. At the same time, these weaknesses created opportunities for abuse by individuals seeking to exploit the asylum system to remain in South Africa unlawfully.
In May 2026, Minister Schreiber’s landmark victory in the Constitutional Court in the Irankunda matter, confirmed that unsuccessful asylum applicants cannot submit endless repeat asylum applications after a final rejection. The judgment not only helped strengthen the rule of law but also allowed scarce administrative resources to be directed towards applicants with genuine protection claims rather than repeated applications and appeals.
Significant work remains to eliminate the backlog entirely, but the DA welcomes that measurable progress has been achieved under Minister Schreiber’s leadership.
The DA supports the continued implementation of reforms that make legal protection accessible to those who genuinely need it while firmly closing the door to abuse.