South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs says it is reducing longstanding backlogs in refugee appeals by introducing new processes and system reforms. According to the department, the reforms have led to a significant reduction in pending appeal cases, cutting the backlog by nearly 19,000 cases in one report and by more than 12% in another. The department attributes the improvement to changes in how refugee appeals are processed, aimed at speeding up case handling and clearing delayed matters. The reporting characterises the backlog reduction as progress achieved through internal operational adjustments rather than a change in policy or legislation, noting that the measures target how appeals move through the relevant system. While the outlets differ slightly in the figures used—one citing an almost 19,000-case reduction and the other describing the decline as exceeding 12%—both refer to the same overall effort by Home Affairs to reduce refugee appeal delays. The updates reflect continued work by the department to address accumulated case backlogs through administrative and procedural improvements.