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Home Affairs extends validity period for expired visas
Businesstech - 29 September 2021
Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi has clarified which services will be available at Home Affairs offices during the country’s adjusted level 2 lockdown, and announced extension dates for various documents.
While Home Affairs offices are operational across the country, some services have been suspended to reduce the number of physical visits.
This is to limit the risk of people infecting each other and the staff because social distancing is difficult when you have a large crowd, it said.
Motsoaledi has subsequently published a national gazette, detailing what services will be available under the extended level 2 lockdown and going forward. These include:
Extensions and new dates
This applies to all visa and permit holders who applied for the previous waiver, and who have not left the country since the declaration of the state of disaster, and for holders of asylum seeker permits and refugee status which expired during the state of disaster.
He added that the following services will be rendered by the Department of Home Affairs from the following dates:
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Foreign nationals file class action against Home Affairs to avoid separation from their children
Groundup 26 September 2021
Forced to stay in unbearable marriages and faced with the constant fear of being separated from their children, three foreign nationals have asked the Cape High Court to declare parts of the Immigration Act unconstitutional as it requires them to leave the country if they get divorced and leave their children behind.
In a desperate fight to stay with their kids, three single parents faced with having to leave South Africa immediately without their children, have filed a class action suit against Department of Home Affairs in the Cape High Court.
In court papers the parents, represented by immigration attorney Gary Eisenberg, described how they are forced to stay in marriages characterised by verbal abuse, drug addiction and abandonment to remain with their children as South Africa’s immigration laws make no provision for their situation.
The Department has indicated that it will oppose the legal action.
The Immigration Act does not provide a visa for the purpose of parenting South African children by foreign nationals once a spousal relationship breaks down. As a result foreigners must leave the country regardless of whether they are the primary caregiver of the children.
The court has been asked to declare these parts of the law unconstitutional and order Parliament to remedy the defects and also for an order that will allow for the three parents to stay in the country.
The names of the applicants are known but withheld to protect the identities of their children.
One of the applicants, a 45-year old German woman, from Kommetjie said she has two sons, aged 10 and 11, who live with her.
She said her husband became aggressive and abusive. “Things have deteriorated to such an extent that the children have no desire to see [him]…He is an absentee father and I am, in effect, a single mother.”
She said while her husband provides minimal financial support she cannot get a divorce as she fears she will be forced to leave the country without her children who are South African citizens.
Her visa will expire in November.
“I should be leaving South Africa immediately … it would be tantamount to abandoning my children.”
She said while she applied for permanent residence her application will likely not be finalised before 2023.
“I am at a loss for what to do,” she added. “It is [the children] who will suffer the most.”
Another applicant, a 46-year old French citizen, has separated from his wife after she became addicted to tik and alcohol and had abandoned him and their two sons.
He is currently in South Africa on a visitors visa and is not allowed to work.
“I can never forgive her for her final abandonment of our two minor children, a trauma that will take them a long time to resolve. I cannot again leave them alone … I am their father,” he said.
The third applicant, a 30-year old boxing coach from Zimbabwe was declared “undesirable” in South Africa and has been banned from returning until 2024.
He has a two year old son and was paying for the flat where the boy was living with his mother, paid maintenance and saw him every day.
In April 2019 he was apprehended at the airport and in terms of a new directive he was declared undesirable for “overstaying” and deported. He can only return to South Africa legally in April 2024.
“I was forced by the policewoman and her superior, and by Passport Control officials, to buy a one-way air ticket to Zimbabwe. I was given no opportunity to make representations … if I did not leave that day, I would be incarcerated and I preferred to leave rather than to sit in jail.”
He admits that he returned to South Africa later in 2019 but did not pass “through passport control.”
“This was the only way I could continue to provide for [my son] and remain part of his life.”
He has also requested the court that this new directive, be declared invalid and set aside as it denies people access to a administrative action if they wish to dispute the finding that they are undesirable.
No date has yet been set for the hearing
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‘Why I can’t leave’: Home Affairs is part of the problem for refugee and migrant women stuck in abusive situations
Daily Maverick – 20 September 2021
Under lockdown, with no in-person services available to refugees and asylum seekers at Home Affairs, a woman who wants to separate her documentation from that of an abusive husband or partner cannot do so.
“I cannot leave, because of my children.”
“There is no place for me to go.”
“My documents are all linked to my husband, so if I left I would be without legal status in South Africa.”
“My job would not support me and the children if we left, so we have to stay.”
Many refugee, asylum seeker and migrant women have experienced many departures – departure from their home country, departure from their home, departure from the comfort and familiarity of speaking their home language, of being surrounded by those they know or feel at home with.
These departures are by no means easy. They are acts of faith, journeys of hope and often grasps at the chance of a better, safer future, for themselves and their families.
However, there is one other departure that is often not possible for (mainly) women who find themselves in another country far from their hometowns, their mother tongues and the support networks they grew up with – leaving a situation where they are at risk of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
For the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign in 2020, the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, in partnership with UNICEF, ran a communications campaign on SGBV to highlight the resources available for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Through the campaign we found that while some resources are made available to victims and survivors of SGBV, many of these are contingent upon an individual having valid documentation in South Africa.
Yet it is often those without valid documentation who are most at risk. Perpetrators of SGBV do not distinguish between citizens and non-citizens, or those who have an ID and those who don’t. Those who are not citizens and might not have an ID have less access to support, less recourse and fewer departure options.
Contrary to the claim that “illegal” migrants have chosen to enter the country without the correct papers, the truth of the matter is that there are few who would choose to live in another country undocumented. For many, valid documentation is a luxury. In fact, the lack of papers which afford them the right to work, to study and to access support services is yet another departure – from security, safety and the acknowledgement of their rights as human beings.
And while the challenge of obtaining documentation has been widely reported, it is still hard to comprehend the complex, contradictory and confusing processes created by Home Affairs for migrants to follow – often to then only reach a dead end.
During the course of South Africa’s nationwide lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, this situation has worsened as refugees and asylum seekers have not been able to access in-person services at the country’s refugee reception offices. This initially meant that if an asylum seeker permit or refugee status document expired, its holder could not renew it. In June 2020, the Minister of Home Affairs issued a blanket extension of all asylum and refugee documents that expired during lockdown. This extension was reissued from time to time, with the most recent one providing for an extension to 30 June 2021.
The services that have not been offered, though, include new asylum applications, as well as family joining, and file separations – services that could mean the difference between someone being able to leave an abusive partner or not.
“I cannot leave, because of my children.”
Often children are documented through only one parent. If that parent is an abusive partner a file separation and subsequent process of joining the child or children to the other parent’s file have to take place. This cannot happen at present, because Home Affairs’ refugee reception offices are not offering these services and haven’t been providing them since at least March 2020. Moreover, there are often intersecting issues such as financial dependence, child support and family networks that make a departure impossible.
“I cannot leave, because there is no place for me to go.”
One of the many departures a migrant, asylum seeker or refugee initially makes is leaving their support structures and community behind. Shelters in South Africa, aside from being full, often require a valid document in order for someone to be placed there. Due to Covid-19 they also require a negative Covid-19 test. For some the cost of a Covid test is prohibitive. For others their lack of documentation or access to Home Affairs services in order to obtain the required documentation means they cannot get placed at a shelter.
The devastating economic consequences of the lockdown, as well as the lack of in-person services at refugee offices, add to the barriers facing asylum seeker, refugee and migrant victims and survivors of SGBV when trying to find a way out of an abuse situation. Subsequently, they are forced to remain in abusive situations without any option to exit. Another departure denied.
“My job would not support me and the children if we left, so we have to stay.”
Financial dependence and the inability to support their children are often why someone might remain in an abusive situation. This applies regardless of nationality, documentation or immigration status. South African citizens and permanent residents, as well as refugees who have refugee identity documents, have access to support options such as social grants they might qualify for, for example the child support grant. For those without documentation or immigration status, or for asylum seekers, these are not an option.
Indeed, even the social relief of distress grant created to support people during the lockdown was initially only made available to South Africans and refugees. It took litigation to make it available to asylum seekers and special permit holders as well. These interventions and initiatives, and campaigns like the Basic Income Grant, are key in trying to help some of society’s most vulnerable. They could be vital for victims and survivors of SGBV by providing the potential for a necessary and needed departure from an abusive situation.
I cannot leave, because my documents are all linked to my husband, so if I left I would be without legal status in South Africa.”
A key intersecting issue can be that many children, and women and children, are documented through the father in a household. In Home Affairs terms this is known as the “principal applicant” or the “main file holder”. This person must always be present when a document is being renewed, following which the dependents in the file receive their renewed document. When faced with the choice between being undocumented or staying in an abusive situation many refugee and asylum seeker women have no options.
It is an impossible choice. To stay means they remain documented and maintain lawful immigration status in South Africa. To leave means they are rendered undocumented; at risk of possible arrest, detention and deportation; and lose documentation allowing them to work. Under lockdown, with no in-person services available to refugees and asylum seekers from Home Affairs, a woman who wants to separate her documentation from that of an abusive husband or partner cannot do so.
In South Africa it is reported that between 25% and 40% of women have experienced SGBV or intimate partner violence. It is a systemic and deeply entrenched issue. For refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, it is exacerbated by lack of access to immigration status and documentation.
If the government were truly committed to combating GBV, one way to support victims and survivors is to ensure that they can access documentation services throughout the country.
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