Frank Maponya

The Department of Home Affairs in Limpopo said yesterday it was experiencing an influx of asylum seekers since the establishment of a refugee office in Musina.

This follows reports that more illegal foreigners were frequenting the office to apply for refugee status.

The offices were established in July and are based at the local showgrounds.

So far more than 4000 foreigners had come forward to apply for asylum.

It has also been reported that many foreigners came from Johannesburg and Pretoria to apply for their asylum permits at the Musina offices, apparently as a result of its effectiveness.

Department spokesman in Limpopo Sam Moremi confirmed yesterday that they were processing between 100 and 200 applications daily since the opening of the refugee offices.

He said those applying for the permits came from Zimbabwe, Somalia and other African countries .

"The establishment of the refugee offices in Musina has come as a relief to most of the illegal foreigners as most of them had waited for far too long," Moremi said.