# The Department of Home Affairs’ Refugee Appeals Authority has recorded the biggest reduction in the asylum appeals backlog in years, slashing its historic backlog by 14.2-percent and its active caseload by 12-percent in 2025/2026. The caseload declined from 79-thousand-870 cases at the end of 2024 to 70-thousand-976 at the end of last year. The department says cases were removed through appeal determinations, withdrawals, case finalisations, and paper determinations where appellants failed to attend scheduled hearings. Minister Leon Schreiber says this is another important step in the country’s immigration reform journey.
Home Affairs has achieved the biggest reduction in SA’s refugee appeals backlog in years