My asylum permit expired and now I'm facing a fine even though all the refugee offices are closed.

Groundup – 21-02-2022

You can approach one of the organisations that work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

The whole question

Dear Athalie

My asylum seeker permit has a note saying that I must pay a fine because I was one week late in renewing it. Where can I go to resolve this? All the refugee reception offices are closed!

The long answer

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) set up an online system in April 2021 to renew refugee and asylum seekers’ permits, and gave a deadline of 31 December 2021 for renewing permits online. A lot of people missed that deadline, saying that the DHA online system was always breaking down, while some said that they never got any response after renewing their permits online.

But that deadline was not extended to people who entered the country after March 2021, as I think must be the case with you.

There is also a massive backlog of applications for asylum seekers’ permits and refugee permits at DHA from before 2020, which is why the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched a big joint project in March 2021 with DHA and the Refugee Appeals Authority to clear the backlog. But because there has been no processing of new asylum seekers and refugees’ permits since 2020, the backlog is unlikely to have been cleared. 

So perhaps the best thing for you to do is to approach one of the three legal organisations that work with the UNHCR and offer free services to asylum seekers and refugees, including assisting with permit renewals. 

These are: 

• Lawyers for Human Rights (with Migrant and Refugee Rights programmes in Johannesburg, Musina, Durban and Pretoria). They are operating through email and phone calls since Covid, and can be reached here:

www.samigration.com

How job reservation is going to tackle unemployment is a mystery

21 February 2022 – Business Day

Economists tell us the employment of foreign nationals in SA is less than 3% of our workforce

Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi. Picture: FREDDY MAVUNDA

Once again we see a move by government to restrict employment practices (“Job reservation is on the cards, government confirms,” February 13).

Economists tell us the employment of foreign nationals in SA is less than 3% of our workforce. How this restriction is going to tackle SA’s record unemployment is therefore a mystery. 

In essence, the government merely wants to do something to make it look like it is trying to tackle the unemployment problem. Instead of actually addressing our restrictive labour laws and onerous regulations, it is making up more regulations as a decoy.

The statement by the home affairs ministry that it wants to implement existing labour laws is also ridiculous. If the laws exist, implement them, instead of trying to add more ridiculous and unworkable regulations.

First, we don’t have the workforce within the department of employment and labour to monitor and oversee the regulations, and second, few employers are actively recruiting at present, so any new regulations would be meaningless.

The employment and labour minister ought to understand that you cannot retrench people to make way for others purely to fulfil a new regulation mandate. 

The storm trooper behaviour of the EFF when barging into businesses to check their employment records will be heavily emboldened by introducing government-sanctioned quotas. If home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi is adamant that all government is doing is enforcing law and order, that’s what it should do, instead of introducing unworkable and unenforceable quotas.

Michael Bagraim
DA deputy employment and labour spokesperson

www.samigration.com

Home affairs effectively wants to destroy economy

21 February 2022 – Business Live

After 26 years of successfully operating our own business in SA, we are virtually being told by home affairs that we are not wanted in SA anymore

I read Michael Bagraim’s letter with great interest (“How job reservation is going to tackle unemployment is a mystery,” February 15). The issue goes even further.

My wife and I (German nationals) came to SA in 1996, brought foreign investments into this country, founded our own company and employed SA nationals, always at the prescribed ratio of at least 60/40.

After 26 years of successfully operating our own business we are virtually being told by the department of home affairs that we are not wanted in SA anymore. It will not extend our business permits anymore, which means we have to close our doors, sell off our assets and leave the country by the end of 2022.

As a result, SA will lose further jobs, investment and taxpayers. In my view this is actively destroying employment rather than doing everything to stimulate the economy.

Very sad.

www.samigration.com

South Africa sues Huawei over foreign employee quota

Fin24 – 21 February 2022

South Africa sued Huawei Technologies for exceeding the number of foreigners it’s allowed to employ

South Africa sued Huawei Technologies for exceeding the number of foreigners it’s allowed to employ in the country as the government ramps up its rhetoric against immigrants filling local jobs.

The Chinese telecommunications giant has about 90% foreign nationals at its South Africa unit, including all five top management officials, the Department of Employment and Labour said in a statement Friday. That exceeds the maximum quota of 40%, the state said.  

The department has filed court papers in Johannesburg, according to Advocate Fix Bede, who is representing the government. It wants the judge to order Huawei comply with the employment rules and pay a fine of R1.5 million or 2% of the unit’s revenue, whichever is greater, she said. 

A spokesperson for Huawei said the firm is working on a comment. 

In addition to affirmative-action measures to ensure companies and the government employ more Black people and women, South African labour legislation also regulates the employment of foreign nationals to ensure legal immigrants don’t take up positions that can be filled locally. 

The ANC has been cracking down on immigration since losing a large chunk of support in Johannesburg and Pretoria in last year’s local elections, casting doubt over the party’s ability to maintain a long-held national majority in 2024. Two parties that gained ground in the vote appealed to an anti-foreigner sentiment in some communities, which has occasionally erupted into violence.

The government in November announced the end of a more than decade-old program to enable about 200,000 Zimbabweans to live and work in the country. Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi then said this week it would look at employment quotas for foreign nationals

www.samigration.com

10 Bangladeshi men rescued in Joburg, suspected foreign national kidnapping mastermind arrested

News24 – 21-02-2022

Ten foreign nationals were allegedly kidnapped on 26 January 2022 while travelling along the N1 from Musina in Limpopo.

• The alleged mastermind behind the kidnapping of foreign nationals was arrested in Centurion during an intelligence-led operation.
• The arrest was in connection with the kidnapping of 10 Bangladeshi men in January.
• he men have been rescued from a lodge in Bruma, Johannesburg.

A 39-year-old Pakistani national who is believed to be the mastermind behind foreign national kidnappings, was arrested in Centurion, allegedly while calling the foreign nationals' families to demand ransom money.

Dilpazeer Azam was arrested on 6 February during an intelligence-led operation that included Crime Intelligence, Gauteng organised crime officers, Johannesburg's K9 Unit, the Gauteng hostage negotiating team, the Ekurhuleni police department's SWAT team, and private security companies.

Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Robert Netshiunda said Azam appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on 8 February 2022, where his case was transferred to the Polokwane Magistrate's Court.

Sketching the background, Netshiunda said 10 Bangladeshi men were travelling along the N1 from Musina on 26 January when the occupants of a vehicle stopped them.

"The victims were allegedly loaded into another vehicle and were transported to Polokwane where they were allegedly handed to the suspect near the Peter Mokaba Stadium," Netshiunda said.

He added that the investigating team received intelligence information which led them to a lodge in Bruma, Johannesburg, where the 10 men were rescued unharmed.

"Preliminary investigations have revealed that the suspect was making calls to the families of the victims, demanding ransom."

Azam appeared in the Polokwane Magistrate's Court on Thursday on charges of kidnapping and extortion.

The matter was postponed to 17 February for a bail application.

www.samigration.com