Nephtalie was born in South Africa. She is twenty-one years old and currently doing a public relations degree at UNISA. She is teaching herself cosmetology to be able to support her family. She was a dependent under her mother’s refugee file.
When she turned eighteen, Nephtalie was removed from her mother’s file, a process called de-linking. She had to make her own asylum seeker application which is currently being reviewed by the Standing Committee of Refugee Affairs (SCRA). A legal pathway for Nepthalie to access citizenship is through a naturalisation application in terms of section 4(3) of
the Citizenship Act. This application was submitted by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) on 11 November 2019.
There has been no outcome since. Nephtalie is at risk of statelessness.
Imagine at this moment being a young person born in South Africa, having gone to school here, lived here your whole and still having a temporary document. Your life is in limbo, and you face countless barriers in trying to have a future. You are told you are not from here, but you know no other place. You have to make an asylum application as your mother decided
to flee before you were born.
Is there something in Nephtalie’s story that moves you? What images are coming into your mind at this moment? Take a moment to think about what this means? Are you being called into a specific action or change in behaviour?
