Migration Jurisprudence from the South › South Africa

Ruta v. Minister of Home Affairs

Constitutional Court of South Africa · South Africa · 2018-12-20 · National court

Citation: [2018] ZACC 52
Type of case: Constitutional and human rights
Outcome: Decided for the migrant side

Question

Can a person who did not claim asylum straight away be deported without their claim being heard?

What the court decided

No. Delay does not cancel the right to apply for asylum, and the non-refoulement principle applies until the claim is decided.

In plain language

A Rwandan man arrested for being in South Africa without papers said he feared going home. The court said he must be allowed to claim asylum first, even though he had waited.

Dalam bahasa sederhana

Seorang pria Rwanda yang ditangkap karena berada di Afrika Selatan tanpa dokumen mengaku takut pulang. Pengadilan menyatakan ia harus diberi kesempatan mengajukan suaka dulu, meski sudah menunda.

Pertanyaan: Bisakah orang yang tidak segera mengajukan suaka dideportasi tanpa permohonannya didengar?

What happened afterwards

2018-12-20: Deportation set aside.

Sources

Open this decision in the interactive collection (compare, filter, Indonesian view, downloads).

Cite as: Institute for Migrant Rights (2026), Migration Jurisprudence from the South, version 0.1, https://theimr.org/court-decisions/d/za-ruta-2018/. This page summarizes a court decision for research and advocacy; it is not legal advice.

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Keywords: case law; jurisprudence; judicial decisions; comparative constitutional law; courts and migration; judicial behavior; litigation outcomes; refugee law; non-refoulement; citizenship and nationality; empirical legal studies; empirical legal scholarship; quantitative legal research; statistical analysis in law; law and economics; law and economics of migration; comparative law; socio-legal studies; legal pluralism; migration law; labor migration; migrant workers’ rights; human rights law; access to justice; Global South; Asia; Africa; Middle East; Latin America; Indonesia; open data; replication data.