Tag Archive for: Refugees South Africa

Andrew Stegmann

SA Home Affairs Asks United Nations HRC for Help with Refugee Backlog

The Department of Home Affairs has approached the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to help it clear the 150 000 refugee status appeals backlog, according to Director of Asylum Seekers, Mandla Madumisa.

Madumisa was speaking at the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on recently, GroundUp reports.

The SAHRC subpoenaed Acting Home Affairs Director-General, Thulani Mavuso, to address complaints that the department takes an inordinately long time to process asylum applications and permanent residence permits.

SAHRC chairperson Bongani Majola, said his institution had struggled to engage with Home Affairs for the past year so a subpoena was necessary.

Majola said: “Home Affairs is a central structure that affects so many people’s lives.”

A working relationship should be established between the commission and Home Affairs so that individual cases could be dealt with efficiently, he said.

Progress

Majola asked Home Affairs representatives if any progress had been made on the backlog of refugee appeals.

Madumisa said a consultant from UNHRC was appointed and started in May. The consultant would assess the situation at Home Affairs and would come up with a comprehensive plan to deal with the backlog.

“By the end of July the department will receive that report and we will have a clear way forward on how we will deal with the backlog,” he said.

Mavuso said Home Affairs also struggled with the verification of information when it came to spousal visa applications. He said the turnaround time for the department is currently eight months but he said it was looking into extending it to 18 months.

“Eight months becomes a challenge because an adjudicator cannot touch an application before the inspector can put a stamp on the verification of information including supporting documents,” he said.

He said this meant that the inspectors would need to do various interviews and confirm that the information presented to Home Affairs is verified.

“You have cases where people submit police clearance documents but the documents have been totally manipulated… so because of the constraints on the ground of the inspectors, we will have to ensure that the [turn around] period increases,” he told the panel.

Mavuso said the turnaround time depended on whether the information provided was easily verified.

SAHRC commissioner Angie Makwetla asked Mavuso whether Home Affairs kept the applicants informed on the status of their application “because a person can’t wait from 2016 to 2018 and not know what is happening”.

Jackie McKay, Deputy Director General of Immigration, responded: “We would love to do that. In fact any good department would do that. But I have 22 people who deal with all of these cases… I’m working my staff to the bone.”

He said Home Affairs did not have systems in place that could automate those updates but he said it was currently working on a system that would make it more efficient.

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann

South African Asylum Processes Undergoing Review

For Azama Damas, a matric drop-out, the march to Parliament yesterday was about highlighting the plight faced by fellow matric pupils who were refugees in South Africa.
The march coincided with World Refugee Day which is observed on June 20 each year to honour the spirit and courage of millions of refugees worldwide who have had to flee their homes and countries due to violence, war and other conflicts.

The 19-year-old Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) national was supposed to be doing her matric at Focus College in Wynberg.

She had hoped to be admitted to Stellenbosch University next year. Instead she is heartbroken at home as she doesn’t have documents.

Damas came to South Africa at a young age with her late father who had a permanent residency. Her father died four years ago. Her mother is in DRC but cannot afford to travel to South Africa.

“I also cannot afford to go back home and besides I don’t want to go back, things are horrible there. That’s why my father came here the first place. My father passed away in 2014 waiting for Home Affairs to put me on the system.”

The Voice of Africans for Change was at the forefront of the march which saw people from about six countries.

They protested for their human rights and called for the Department of Home Affairs to “stop defeating the ruling of the Supreme Court of Appeal” and reopen the refugee reception office in Cape Town.

The Supreme Court of Appeal last year ordered the department to reopen the reception refugee office in Cape Town by March 31 of this year.

The office was yet to open, the group said.

Nijimbere Luqman, 32, from Burundi, said he was forced to leave his home due to war, persecution and violence.

“I have been here since 2016 I cannot work and my son cannot go to school because we don’t have papers. I have been surviving through the help of other people. We are not treated like humans here. We are suffering. My wife was left behind and was supposed to follow but to date I have not got hold of her. I think she might have been killed in the ongoing political war.”

Making a speech at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, yesterday, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said that over the years South Africa had become one of the largest host countries for refugees worldwide, with more than 126000 refugees recorded since 2009, and many more asylum seekers.

“As we stand #WithRefugees, we must reflect on the enormous disruption and difficulty faced by refugees and displaced persons, and highlight the need to assist them by providing a safe place, and welcoming them into our communities, our schools, and our workplaces.

“South Africa remains committed to protecting refugees and strengthening our institutional arrangements in this regard.

“Accordingly, we are in the process of updating our policies and regulations with regard to international migration and refugees.

‘‘We intend further to strengthen our capacity to speedily process asylum claims through various interventions which are complemented by our new international migration policy which seeks to address the challenges occasioned by the large number of economic migrants who abuse the asylum seeker process to regularise their stay in South Africa,” Gigaba said.

He said in recent years, “spurious asylum” applications by economic migrants overwhelmed the system, resulting in inordinately long wait times for decisions for applicants.

“This made it extremely difficult to identify and respond to the needs of genuine refugees.

“Our new international migration policy presents a new approach to better manage irregular and economic migration, through regularisation of existing migrants already residing in South Africa, and creating new visa options for citizens of neighbouring countries to reside in South Africa legally.”

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: Okuhle Hlati via IOL [1]. Image sources: [1].

Andrew Stegmann

SA Immigration Changes Gradually Progressing in DHA

Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has bemoaned red tape and a ministerial revolving door that make it difficult to push through policy changes.

Gigaba, who himself has been public enterprises minister, home affairs minister and finance minister, before moving back to the home affairs portfolio, told a Black Business Council (BBC) roundtable in Sandton on Friday: “The biggest problem the ANC needs to address is that a vision can’t be carried by an individual but needs to be carried by an institution. The vision must be sustainable even if the individuals aren’t sustainable.”

In references to the various cabinet reshuffles in the past few years, he said: “We don’t even know whether we’re still going to be here to carry out these visions.”

While the Department of Home Affairs had ambitious plans to make the department completely paperless, to review critical skills work permits and to manage SA’s borders, it was difficult to make changes, he said.

“The immigration act couldn’t deal with a number of challenges, we need a new policy framework,” he said.

“Red tape makes it difficult for decisions to move speedily. To get something approved takes over a year. Things that need to move quickly, take forever.”

Critical skills

One of the problems that needed to be addressed was that students from other countries who study scarce skills in SA are then lost to the workforce because they struggle to get documentation allowing them to stay.

“The manner in which the last white paper was drafted, didn’t allow us to attract critical skills. Students who studied critical skills here would leave and we would lose those skills,” said Gigaba.

Changes that are in the works would allow students to skip certain stages to get permanent residence immediately, he said.

A new white paper on immigration was passed in 2017 but implementation will take the next two years.

It is intended to make criteria for immigration clearer, and make it easier to apply and submit documentation.

Criteria for permanent residents to acquire citizenship will also be made clearer.

It also aims to create a clearer distinction between the citizenship process and the refugee regime, and to create a more durable refugee system.

“We are also looking at introducing long-term visas for low-skilled migrants from the Southern African Development Community region,” Gigaba said.

“It will … provide them with documentation and ensure they are integrated into society.”

Gigaba said economic migrants abused the asylum-seeker system instead of seeking regularization.

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: Sunita Menon via BusinessDay [1]. Image sources: [1].

Andrew Stegmann

Security Problems at Home Affairs Foreshore

Refugees and asylum seekers say that the Home Affairs offices on the Foreshore in Cape Town are more chaotic than ever since security vanished at the facility.

It is not unusual for refugees to experience poor service and mistreatment and to queue from 5am, but in the past week they say things have become even worse.

Asylum seekers come to renew their papers; refugees arrive to collect IDs, apply for passports and register children and relatives. But in the absence of security to show people which queue to join, people are left confused. There is also no one to maintain order in the queues or to prioritise mothers with babies and small children.

On Wednesday, GroundUp found no security at the main entrance. Usually security guards screen people on arrival. Inside the gate, there were two officials collecting documents. Outside the offices, officials would appear from time to time and collect documents handed to them over the perimeter fence or call out the names of people whose files they had. Some people said they did not know what queue they were standing in.

An Ethiopian man, who preferred not to be named, had flown from Johannesburg on Tuesday night and queued on Wednesday to extend his refugee status. He was told at 10am to return on Thursday. But Home Affairs told GroundUp: “The status renewal schedule is aligned to the schedule for available interpreters (Ethiopians are Wednesday). However if there is proof of travelling the applicants are
prioritised.”

“The problem with this place is that no one listens … No one cares or gives a damn,” said the man. “You are not given a chance to raise your issues or explain your circumstances. Besides losing my seat [for the return flight] today, I have to pay for accommodation and it’s not guaranteed that if I come again tomorrow I will be served.” He also said he was missing work and would not be paid.

A number of parents told GroundUp their children were missing school. “My two children, who are doing grade four and eight, have missed three days of school,” a mother said. “It is crucial that they be in school because they are doing revision in preparation for mid-year examinations. These people just don’t care. When I showed him [the official] my paper, he just pushed it back without even looking at it.”

“For three days I didn’t work. Next week it’s month end. I need to pay school fees and rent. I hope today they will help me. I do have a refugee status that I renew every four years,” she said.

Pastor Belesi from the Democratic Republic of Congo said he had applied for his ID last year in December and was told he should follow up after three months. He said last week he forced himself inside the building. He was told the official who deals with IDs was away for the whole week and he should return next week.

“So today I am here since 6am, but I do not see myself getting any service,” said Belesi. “I am just waiting. Nobody is telling me anything. I don’t know what to do; should I stay, go or wait? I missed the 10am church meeting and the congregation is still waiting for me.”

Home Affairs spokesperson Thabo Mokgola responded to a number of queries but ignored GroundUp’s question about the security guard situation.

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, and Remuneration needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: Tariro Washinyira  via GroundUp [1]. Image source: [1].