The gathering comes weeks after refugees besieged the United Nations High Commission For Refugees offices in Cape Town and Pretoria demanding to be moved away from xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

The Global Refugee Forum in Geneva brings together governments, business and relief agencies.

UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi says the burden of housing refugees must be shared more fairly.

The number of refugees  driven out by war in Africa and the Middle East, violent drug lords in Colombia and repressive regimes in Asia are now four times more than the people displaced by the Second World War.

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The Department of Home Affairs says it’s checked their status and is now trying to get them to return to their places of residence in South Africa.

The statement from the Department of Home Affairs says the process of verifying the status of protestors was completed while they were being held at the Lindela Repatriation Centre.

They were taken there after police removed them from the parking lot and grounds of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

The attempt says the protestors are legally here some as documented refugees and others as documented asylum seekers.

Some have returned voluntarily to their places of residence in South Africa, despite fears of xenophobic attacks which caused the protest.

The department says it’s encouraging other foreign nationals to follow suit. 

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Judge Natvarlal Ranchod will hear from counsel for the police and Home Affairs Ministry why they can’t act against the protestors in the way local residents are demanding.

In papers before the court, the South African Police Service says the gathering outside the UNHCR is not illegal.

Refugees are exercising their constitutional right to protest .

They’re demanding to be moved to safety away from xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

Home Affairs says it has neither the legal capacity nor the resources to check the status of each of the protestors  so that illegal immigrants might be deported. 

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It could mean police moving in to clear them off and Home Affairs checking for those who are illegally in South Africa.

The refugees, who are demanding to be moved out of South Africa where they face xenophobic attacks, are not represented in the Pretoria High Court.

Judge Natvarlal Ranchod postponed the matter yesterday to allow the local authority and Home Affairs department to decide how to cooperate in this matter.

The residents, who argue that the refugees are not above the law, are also calling for the nudge to order immediate action to end the protest.

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The matter has been laid down for Guy Fawkes Day in the Pretoria High Court.

Alex Ngoy, representing the 500 refugees protesting against xenophobic attacks in South Africa and demanding that the UN High Commissioner For Refugees move them safety, says they have not been served with papers to appear in court.

The lawyers who attended a meeting earlier this month of concerned residents of Brooklyn and Waterkloof say they recognize the right to the refugees to protest.

However the health and security concerns of residents are paramount.

They are seeking an order compelling the local authority to move the protestors who are contravening  the Gatherings Act.  

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Democratic Alliance MP Adrian Roos says he’l ask the directors general Home Affairs and Co-operative Governance what they are doing  about the  refugees demand to be moved away from xenophobic attacks.

Outgoing Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba is expected the joint parliamentary portfolio committee meeting in Cape Town tomorrow despite his resignation from the Democratic Alliance.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has tweeted that the more than 1000 protestors outside their offices in Pretoria and Cape Town are getting no special treatment.

If they want to be moved from South Africa, where they feel threatened, there are recognized procedures to follow. 

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