Scalabrini Centre
The Scalabrini Centre is a South African migration-rights organisation that provides services to asylum seekers and migrants, and has been litigating DHA processing delays before the Constitutional Court.
Last refreshed: 30 April 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
What cases has the Scalabrini Centre brought against DHA over visa delays?
Timeline for Scalabrini Centre
Mentioned in: Schreiber names a nomad visa lane
Nomads & CommunitiesContinued to litigate DHA processing delays before the Constitutional Court
Nomads & Communities: DHA buys 15 months on visa backlog- What is the Scalabrini Centre in Cape Town?
- The Scalabrini Centre is a Cape Town-based NGO providing legal aid and advocacy for migrants. It has litigated DHA processing delays before the Constitutional Court for over two decades.
- Is the Scalabrini Centre suing the South African Department of Home Affairs?
- Yes. The Scalabrini Centre, alongside the Helen Suzman Foundation, is litigating DHA processing delays before the Constitutional Court. DHA's Immigration Directive 7 of 2026 implicitly conceded ground by extending lawful stay for pending applicants to June 2027.Source: Lowdown briefing U#313
Background
The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town is a non-profit immigrant and refugee rights organisation that provides legal aid, social services, and advocacy for migrants in South Africa. In the nomads-and-communities briefing it is named alongside the Helen Suzman Foundation as one of the litigants pursuing the Department of Home Affairs before the Constitutional Court over persistent visa processing delays — the same delays that DHA itself implicitly acknowledged with Immigration Directive 7 of 2026, which extended pending applicants' lawful stay to 30 June 2027 .
Founded by the Scalabrinian missionary order and now operating as an independent NGO, the Centre has been a core litigant in South African immigration law for over two decades. Its Constitutional Court cases have set key procedural precedents on DHA's duties to process applications within statutory timeframes. The Directive 7 extension is in part a product of that litigation pressure: the 15-month cover reduces the urgency of contempt proceedings while DHA clears its backlog.
