From quotas to critical skills exchange — four changes proposed for foreign workers in SA

Timeslive - 28 January 2022

Employment and labour minister Thulas Nxesi has raised concerns around illegal recruitment practices, including the hiring of foreign workers who are in the country unlawfully.
Image: Jairus Mmutle

Amid the labour department’s “mega-blitz inspections” at hospitality venues in the Western Cape this week, minister Thulas Nxesi has announced new rules aimed at foreign workers in SA.

Nxesi, who joined a team of inspectors in Sea Point, Cape Town, on Tuesday, raised concerns about illegal recruitment practices, including the hiring of foreign workers who are in the country unlawfully.

He said some employers were subjecting undocumented foreign nationals to inferior labour standards and not covering them in terms of existing social protection measures such as the Unemployment Insurance Fund , Pension Fund and Compensation Fund. 

“These practices are illegal. They are unacceptable and it is something that is preoccupying us daily in the department,” said Nxesi.

The department said the inspections led to extensive research on other aspects relating to migration management, and the department has since developed a new national labour migration policy and proposed amendments to the existing Employment Services Act. 

The proposals will be released for a three-month public comment process before the end of February/March if cabinet approves the department’s submission. 

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Social partners at the national economic development and labour council (Nedlac) will also be afforded the opportunity to adjust the policy and bill during May/June before making a submission to parliament.

The proposals will focus on four major areas which will introduce significant changes to the country’s national labour migration policy (NLMP).

These four major areas are:

Quotas

The department noted SA’s population expectations regarding access to work for South Africans, given worsening unemployment and perceptions that foreign nationals, especially those who are undocumented, are distorting labour market access. 

This practice is promoted by some employers who do not comply with existing labour legislation and continue to undermine existing minimum standards.

“The employment and labour NLMP will introduce maximum quotas on the total number of documented foreign nationals with work visas that can be employed in major economic sectors such as agriculture, hospitality and tourism, construction, to name a few,” it said. 

“The NLMP will be complemented by small business intervention and enforcement of a list of undesirable sectors where foreign nationals cannot be allocated business visas and amendments to the Small Business Act to limit foreign nationals establishing SMMEs and trading in some sectors of our economy.”

Immigration act changes

The department of home affairs is reviewing the Immigration Act, the Citizenship Act and the Refugees Act to ensure more alignment. 

“The home affairs and border management authority are also getting into action to secure porous borders and allow for the orderly movement of people and other nationals across ports of entry only,” said the department. 

Protection of migrant workers and their families

The department said it will ensure the protection of migrant workers and their families in accordance with international standards and guidelines.

“SA will also implement these initiatives within the context of its regional integration and co-operation imperatives that have already been agreed to at the Southern African Development Community and AU levels,” it said

Critical skills

The higher education and training department has released scarce and critical skills in high demand to provide guidance to all institutions to prioritise education and training interventions in those areas. 

“The list will be used as a last resort to allow foreign nationals in possession of the listed skills the economy requires, and where job offers have been made, to be allocated work visas. 

“The government will also impose obligations on both the employer and the foreign national to transfer skills to locals and permits will be limited to specific durations,” said the department. 

www,samigration.com

Home Affairs signs deal with UN refugee agency to deal with asylum seekers backlog

News24 – 28-01-2022

• As of the 2019/20 financial year, the Refugee Appeal Authority of SA says the backlog stood at more than 153 000.
• The new deal with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees will see around R147 million given to RAASA and technical support to eliminate this backlog.
• The number of people now who must be cleared via this backlog is 163 000. 

The Department of Home Affairs has signed an agreement with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR ) to eliminate delays and a backlog in decisions for asylum seekers.

Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said: "I am happy that the UNHCR is partnering with the government and people of South Africa in eliminating the backlog in the asylum seeker system.

"The start of this backlog coincided with the year 2008 when there was a global financial crisis. Up until then, the department was able to clear asylum applications which it was receiving each year from 1998, the year in which the Refugee Act of South Africa was enacted."

As of the 2019/20 financial year, the Refugee Appeal Authority of SA (RAASA), an independent statutory administrative tribunal tasked with ensuring that appeal cases are dealt with efficiently, said the backlog stood at more than 153 000. The Auditor-General said, if nothing changed, it would take 68 years to clear the backlog, without taking new cases.

"The partnership we are launching brings in financial and technical support to help RAASA eliminate the backlog and establish a robust asylum appeals management programme going into the future. Over the next four years, the UNHCR will make available US$9.6 million or around R147 million to RAASA and technical support to eliminate this backlog,” Motsoaledi said.

Motsoaledi said the agreement would see the UNHCR pay for 36 new members of Raasa, including their training and equipment. The number of people now who must be cleared via this backlogs is 163 000.

Currently in Cape Town, thousands of refugees are displaced after they fled their homes due to xenophobia fears. They have been relocated to two temporary sites - one in Bellville Paint City and the others at Wingfield Military site in Goodwood.

Parliament's home affairs portfolio committee has since intervened to either repatriate people back to their home countries or to reintegrate the refugees back into their communities.

The committee had set March 15 as the deadline for the UNHCR, the City and the Department of Home Affairs together to come up with a plan for the former Greenmarket Square refugees.

www.samigration.com

Home Affairs says it will clear 68-year backlog in refugee applications in four years

28 January 2022 -  Groundup 

The UNHCR and Home Affairs have announced a US$9.6 million asylum seeker backlog project

On Monday, The Department of Home Affairs, the Refugee Appeals Authority and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched a US$9.6 million asylum seeker backlog project.

The UNHCR said: “Problems in the asylum system led to some claims being stuck for over a decade waiting to be heard. Of the 266,694 refugees and asylum-seekers in South Africa, two-thirds of them do not have access to the full rights and privileges of refugee status.”

In a previous statement the UNHCR said: “The project will eliminate the backlog over the next four years, and strengthen the system to ensure another one does not form. During the time frame, the appeals of 153,391 people will be heard.”

In his address, Minister Of Home Affairs Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said that up until 2008 the department was able to clear asylum applications which it was receiving each year. In 1998 it received 11,135 applications; in 2006, it processed 53,361. But not after 2008, when the number of applications shot up nearly fourfold to 207,206. Another 223,324 applications were received in 2009.

“These numbers overwhelmed a system which was functional in dealing with 53,000 applications a year. Suddenly, the system had to process over 400,000 applications which came in just two years,” he said.

“The Auditor General of South Africa said if nothing changed, it would take 68 years to clear the backlog without taking new cases. Since the Auditor General’s pronouncements in February 2020, a lot of things have changed to help us deal with the backlog.”

For many asylum seekers news that the backlog may be cleared will be welcome news.

Francine Nduwimana, a Burundian asylum seeker, told GroundUp about her ordeal fleeing from militia in her home country. She said she was separated from her six-year-old child in Tanzania en route to South Africa in 2011. Since then she has repeatedly had to relate her story to Home Affairs officials, renewing her document every three to six months. She is still waiting for her case to be determined.

Nduwimana is currently in the Bellville refugee camp with other asylum seekers who protested outside the UNHCR in 2019, demanding to leave South Africa.

Zainabu Safi, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, said she fled war in Kivu and has been in limbo in South Africa since 2012. Every time she has to renew her papers she has to travel to Musina. She has to take her children with her since Home Affairs requires them to be present in person. She says the process usually takes her a week in Musina.

“This is the reason why I joined the protest and why I am here at the [Bellville] camp. I have nothing. The little money I made from piece jobs I used to travel to Musina. Without a proper document, I can’t study, find a job or start a business. We had a spaza shop in Marikana informal settlement but it was burnt down during a protest.”

“Ten years I am still an asylum seeker … Every time you are told we will give you a refugee status when you come back,” said Safi.

www.samigration.com

Home Affairs struggles to tackle 2-year backlog

Businesstech  - 26-01-2022

Permanent Residency Permit (PRP) applications for South Africa have been on hold since March 2020 when the president declared the country to be in a national state of disaster, and the arrival of the Omicron variant could push things out even further, warn immigration experts.

When the Department of Home Affairs was forced to down tools, PRP applications quickly began piling up, says Moeketsi Seboko, immigration manager at Xpatweb.

“Foreign nationals hoping to settle in the country more permanently were shocked by the delays because it prevented them from being able to open bank accounts or renew car licenses, among other things. In fear that they would not be allowed back into South Africa, they were also reluctant to leave the country.

“Business owners who were waiting for their permanent residency permit to be approved, found themselves stuck in limbo. They were obligated to continue with their trade and to provide for themselves while being unsure about what the future would hold for them.”

Before long, the department was compelled to begin processing PRPs due to a backlog of thousands of applicants, said Seboko.

In June 2021, it announced that applications would resume from 1 January 2022. However, nearly two years after the onset of the pandemic, the discovery of the mutated Omicron variant, could see the state of disaster being extended well into the new year, leaving those who dream of becoming permanent residents possibly perturbed.

“The DHA has yet to confirm whether they would continue with their plans to tackle the backlog in the new year,” he said.

Critical skills

The DHA advised that, from past information, the predominant applicant for permanent residency are dependents, like spouses or life partners.

There are, however, numerous cases where the primary applicants were migrants who have been working in South Africa for more than five years or experienced foreign nationals who qualified for a PRP based on their critical skills, said Seboko.

“This means that, with the release of the revised Critical Skills List looming, and the draft CSL having been handed over to the DHA for consideration, they consulted with various government departments, including the Departments of Health, Tourism, Public Enterprises and NEDLAC for additional input.

“Thousands of skilled foreign nationals are now hoping that their vocation will be listed as in-demand in South Africa so that they can commence a career path in the country.”

Seboko noted that the DHA is notoriously understaffed and wrestles with an archaic IT system, which makes the PRP and visa processes treacherously slow. In response to these concern, the department has assured applicants that it was working to reduce processing times.

www.samigration.com

Home Affairs botch up leaves Durban widow 'divorced'

New24 26 Jan 2022

Durban - After being happily married for more than 30 years, Durban resident Gourie Bryce was shocked when she received her husband’s death certificate which listed her marital status as “divorced”.

To make matters worse, the Department of Home Affairs has not yet rectified the mistake – despite repeated requests – leaving her unable to settle his affairs.

Bryce, 59, said her husband, James Hogg Bryce, died of natural causes last October. When her son collected the death certificate from the funeral parlour, he immediately called her.

“My son phoned and said, ’are you hiding something from us, we never knew you were divorced’?

“I was so shocked when I learnt that the marital status on my husband’s death certificate stated ‘divorced’.

“We were married in 1989 and we never even argued, let alone got divorced.

“Anyone will tell you, my husband was a wonderful man,” she said.

Bryce has three grown-up children, with one daughter in Durban and her other daughter and son living in the UK. She said her son and daughter had immediately travelled to SA on being told of their father’s death.

“We had been chatting with them just the night before, as they were together in the UK for the weekend. My husband died three hours later in the early hours of the next morning,” she said.

After learning about the error on the death certificate, Bryce immediately went to the Department of Home Affairs in Umgeni Road.

“It was a time of grief and trauma for our family. It was not an easy time at all.

“I asked them (Home Affairs) to rectify the death certificate and the official told me ‘not to worry, it happens all the time’.”

She was told by Home Affairs to go to the High Court to prove she and her husband were not divorced, which she did. She also got a court letter confirming there was no record of divorce in her husband’s name.

“While I was there, the lady helping me also said ‘this happens all the time’,” she said.

The court letter was submitted with a copy of her husband’s ID document to the head office of Home Affairs, yet despite repeated queries, the mistake has not yet been rectified.

“How did this happen? Who changed my husband’s marital status and what would be the reason for changing it?

“I need to wind up his affairs, but I need the correct certificate. Anything I do needs paperwork, but I can’t do anything until the death certificate is correct,” she said, adding that she had also sent numerous emails to the department about the issue and had no response.

Bryce said that on Tuesday this week, she was asked to submit an affidavit to Home Affairs confirming her marriage, which she had done.

She described her family as close-knit, recalling happy times and holidays spent together while their children were growing up.

Her husband was from England, but when they met in Durban in the late ’80s, she said “we clicked immediately. We got married here in Durban and we had so many good times”.

“My husband was calm, solid, humble, caring and loving. This situation has been so frustrating and when two different departments tell you ‘it happens all the time’, the public needs to know.

“What is being done to rectify these matters?” she asked.

Despite repeated requests for comment via WhatsApp and email, the Department of Home Affairs did not respond to questions on the matter.

www.samigration.com