Cape Town – The Chairperson of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) set up to look at migration, Minister Jeff Radebe, says government is reviewing South Africa’s migration policy in a bid to deal with the strain between locals and foreign nationals that has affected some communities.
Minister Radebe, who is also responsible for the Ministry of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency, said this when briefing Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee on Violence against Foreign Nationals on Tuesday.
He said a heavy influx of foreign nationals has led to migration laws not being adhered to due to border management laxity and the visa waiver to Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, among others, which has led to foreign nationals staying in the country longer than they should be.
This, coupled with other causes like socio-economic conditions and unfair business practices, has necessitated the IMC to look into this and other interventions.
“The Department of Home Affairs is reviewing South Africa’s migration policy and intends tabling a green paper in the Forum of South African Directors-General during the third quarter of the current financial year.
“Cabinet has also approved the Refugee Amendment Bill in September 2015 for tabling in Parliament,” he said.
The Minister said the review of the country’s migration policy was one of several interventions through which government was responding to underlying root causes and tensions that led to attacks on foreign nationals in April 2015 in various parts of the country.
Other interventions would include:
- Addressing the asylum seekers’ backlog through the immediate funding and capacitating of the Standing Committee on Refugee Affairs and Refugee Appeals Board;
- Restricting the movement of asylum applicants to a single magisterial district through the setting up of decentralised refugee reception centres at ports of entry;
- Funding and capacitating of Immigration Services (IMS) to empower the inspectorate, revamp ports of entry as well as to create the necessary systems to deal with migration and,
- Controlling the inflow of migrants by setting a tolerance threshold or a quota system.
The Minister also said government would revisit South Africa’s accession to the relevant United Nation conventions without reservation and amend the country’s Refugees Act accordingly.
Over and above this, government would also develop a comprehensive strategy with SADC states for managing migration into South Africa.
To improve border management, Minister Radebe said government will fund, capacitate and deploy the requisite South African National Defence Force companies to the borderline.
He said this would go hand-in-hand with expediting the construction of border fences and the establishment of patrol roads.
While government was mobilising and involving communities in borderline security management, it was also working hard to eradicate corruption and illegal activities at ports of entry and the borderline.
“In the aftermath of the attacks, foreign nationals were reintegrated while some were voluntarily repatriated.
“The Technical Task Team of Directors-General on Migration held successful meetings with African diaspora groups to discuss their challenges.
“[The task team also] communicated government’s expectations of their communities in terms of adherence to South African law and regulations,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
