Noel Maluka says he decided to leave the Democratic Republic of Congo after he was stabbed in the face by Congolese security forces - losing the sight in his left eye during the assault.

He says he was attacked in April during an anti-government demonstration in Kinshasa by his party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS).

A relative paid for him to fly to South Africa, where he hoped to gain refugee status on the grounds of political persecution.

When he went to the Pretoria office of Home Affairs - the government department that deals with immigration - a man he describes as "security" demanded a payment of R200 ($30) to be allowed in to have his application processed.

He didn't have the money. After receiving some money from relatives back in Kinshasa, he decided instead to try another office.

"I went to Durban - there it was free, even if you had to spend the night outside the office."

The Durban office also offered the services of a translator, something that was absent in Pretoria - like many asylum seekers in South Africa, Mr Maluka does not speak English.

Mr Maluka now has to travel the 600km to Durban every time he needs to renew his permit. This is usually once every two months, though other asylum seekers say they have had their permits renewed sometimes for three months and sometimes only for one month.

Sleeping in queues

"Who are we to tell them what to do?" says another Congolese asylum seeker, who gave her name as Mamie.

"If they want to, they can give you only five days or a week."

On one occasion when she went to renew her permit, Mamie says she once spent a week sleeping outside the Home Affairs office in Johannesburg to try to get to the front of the queue.

Noel and Mamie are among the 142,000 refugees and asylum seekers currently in South Africa, many of them still struggling to confirm their legal status.

South Africa's image of a prosperous and peaceful place on a troubled continent has made it the first choice for many of those fleeing war or persecution elsewhere.

The asylum seekers' predicament is highlighted in a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which concludes that while South Africa's system for processing asylum claims is fine in theory, it is flawed in practice.

The report tells of people waiting in legal limbo for five years, constantly renewing the temporary asylum seeker permits - even though the system is designed for asylum claims to be finalised in six months.

It tells of "helpers" who hang around on the pavement extorting money from asylum seekers in exchange for speeding up their claims.

Asylum seekers suspect that these "helpers" are colluding with government officials, and exploiting refugees' desperation to find their way through an overloaded system.

Staff shortage

Nobuntu Mbelle, one of the researchers of the HRW report, believes that staffing at the Home Affairs offices is at the root of the problem.

"The Johannesburg office is poorly staffed and can't deal with the cases coming in on a daily basis. Then when you have an increase in arrivals, then obviously you have a backlog."

"Home Affairs is aware of this and are dealing with it, but they need to do more."

The uncertainty over their status has left asylum seekers dependent on the charity of churches, or eking out a living in informal trade.

"I have an MSc in sustainable agriculture but I'm working selling things in the street," says Lavee, an Eritrean who came to South Africa to study, and then realised that the political situation in his country had deteriorated to the point where he could not go home.

Charity

South Africa recently brought its law into line with international standards, so as to give asylum seekers the right to study and to be employed. But employers are still reluctant to take on migrants who lack permanent South African residence.

"It [the asylum seeker document] says I can study and work, but when you go for work they don't recognise that," Lavee says.

Mamie from DR Congo sells handbags and shoes on the street.

She says the Rhema Church of which she is a member helped her when her child needed hospital treatment, and the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) have money for education, and loans to help her buy goods to sell on the street.

"We have run away from our countries because of war," she says. "Now we are having our own war with Home Affairs."