He was speaking at a conference on international migration‚ which including discussions on SA’s new White Paper on International Migration. The draft paper‚ expected to be given to Cabinet by the end of March‚ includes amendments to at least five Acts‚ including the Immigration Act and Marriage Act.
The department is also pushing to establish new structures‚ such as a Border Management Authority that could manage all aspects of cross border movement of people and goods.
Home Affairs expects the new White Paper to lead to legislative changes by 2018‚ replacing the current 1999 policy document now seen as “outdated”.
The department sees the policy framework as a shift towards a more “Afro-centric” immigration regime‚ leveraging the development potential of migration‚ particularly at a regional level.
The draft White Paper seeks to increase “rules” on economic migrants‚ and the removal of an automatic progression from residency to citizenship.
The Green Paper on International Migration‚ published in June 2016‚ proposed sweeping changes to SA’s approach to economic migrants‚ refugees and naturalisation.
These included “processing camps” that would house refugees pending adjudication of their cases. It would remove the automatic right to work or study pending the finalisation of an application that would take place in 120 days. This proposal remains‚ with a naturalisation strategy‚ to be developed.
The draft White Paper also proposed the mandatory registration of South African expatriates.
It wants the introduction of a points-based system to determine eligibility criteria for long-term visas‚ which puts an end to a process of automatic citizenship for long-term residents.
This would be replaced by a proposed “Citizenship Advisory Panel” to consider applications.
Some 16 million foreigners enter and exit SA every year‚ with 1 082 669 asylum seekers being registered between 2006 and 2015. SA has also deported 369 000 people from 2012 to 2017‚ with Home Affairs estimating that 95% of asylum applications are from economic migrants as opposed to political refugees.
The department is expected to argue before Cabinet and Parliament that the cost of no investment in managing migration exceeds that of building capacity‚ but it has not quantified the cost to the fiscus of its various proposals.
“… It is not possible to prepare a complete fiscal and financial assessment of the White Paper’s implications which should be more properly assessed during the legislative process‚” an abridged version of the draft White Paper reads.
(As published by www.timeslive.co.za)
Minister Malusi Gigaba has identified the development of a new international migration policy as one of his top priorities during his term of office. This policy review seeks to lay a solid policy foundation for South Africa to manage international migration securely and effectively, in line with the National Development Plan. In the 2014/15 financial year, the Department of Home Affairs submitted a Discussion Paper on international migration to the Minister for approval. The Discussion Paper served as a basis for drafting the Green Paper, which was submitted in the 2015/16 financial year and approved by the Minister on 29 March 2016. The Green Paper has been used as a basis for drafting the White Paper on international migration to be submitted to Cabinet for approval by 31 March 2017.
The National International Migration Conference will be attended by Ministers of Home Affairs from Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland; ambassadors; as well as international experts and practitioners invited to share international experience on the management of international migration.
(as published by www. dha.gov.za)
Donald Trump took his time to roll out his achievements in the past 30 days, While also stating what he intends to do in the nearest future. In all of this, Africa and the black world appears to have a little bearing on the plans of Donald Trump. Everything, if any, he would be doing appears to be more orthodox. As he has been stating, Trump’s policies are almost entirely focused on America.
He restated his stance on immigration, howbeit in a subtle yet potent manner. He stressed yet again the need to “strengthen” the border to keep as many people out and as many American resources in. Donald Trump emphasised the enforcement of a renewed and reviewed immigration law, which will “keep Islamic radical terrorists out.” However, Trump mentioned the support of friends of America from the Muslim world in fighting radical Islamic terrorism, to show, more like feign, acceptance of his views by some powerful world countries. The strategy is simple: whatever means he takes, be it banning refugees from some countries or travellers from some other countries, it is all in a bid to defeat radical Islamic terrorism. “It is not to keep a people from a certain part of the world out, no, it is all just to preserve and protect our people from terrorists, foreign terrorists,” as though there are no home grown self-radicalised terrorist in America.
Though he never mentioned Africa expressly, he spent a lot of time on a topic peculiar to the black continent: immigration. While he did not explain it in the largely threatening and demeaning language he used during the campaign and inaugural speech, he reinforced the same doctrine that underlies his policy on immigration. By making reference to Canada which operates what Trump describes as “a marriage based” immigration system, Trump is announcing an end to the era of going to America to find a livelihood. To put it simply, you would not be going to America to “hustle”, you will be going to America to work, to study, or live with an outlined means of sustenance. This will definitely see a massive reduction in the number of immigrants from Africa.
In all this, one thing remains constant: Trump is putting America first. The greater part of the speech was dedicated to fronting his plan to make America and Americans better.
However, he expressed a certain interesting rejuvenated point: African Americans are as safe as white Americans in Trumpland. His plans to have an education bill which promotes school choice for every American child, including African Americans and Latinos—the two races that have suffered from Trump’s buccal swords—shows he will not be so hard on all immigrants. His problem remains illegal immigration.
Using a Black American as a face of his education policy might be seen an idea to bribe his way through the Democrats who have emphasised, deeply, on Trump’s perceived divisive policies. However, to the Black community, it shows they can feel American again. The message was quite clear: his would be an inclusive government (campaign is over).
Published by Ventures Africa, Olumide Jokotade
The Department of Home Affairs, in its endeavour to streamline processes and as part of the continuous service delivery improvement and efficiency, had planned to replace the South African Police Clearance requirement with the online biometric background checks linked to the South African Police Service database in the application process for temporary residence visas and permanent residence permits at VFS Global Visa application Centres within South Africa.
Please take note that due to further technical enhancements that are required, the replacement of the South African police clearance as outlined above has been temporarily postponed until further notice. The current process facilitated as per the old and existing process of applying forthe police clearance certificate at SAPS continues. All persons requiring police clearance certificates are advised to continue with the existing process until further notice when the new and improved system would be ready for implementation as system developments are currently at the final stage of development.
Published by the Department of Home Affairs www.dha.gov.za