The department needs to establish authenticity before granting spousal or relative visas
A major headache for the department of home affairs in processing temporary residence visas is having to establish the authenticity of relationships claimed between individuals.
Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi revealed this in a written reply to a parliamentary question by DA MP Thembisile Khanyile who asked about the current backlog of processing applications for temporary residence visas .

The rising cost of living has bumped up the number of people at risk of poverty in the country to 12.7 million .
`I can`t make ends meet`. This is a phrase that is heard more and more frequently among the people of Spain. Rising food prices, the supply chain crisis and the war in Ukraine have further widened the gap between the cost of living and the salary that many workers in Spain receive at the end of the month.

This imbalance between income and expenditure has led to a significant loss of purchasing power, which economists estimate to be around 1,200 euros. This has meant that almost half of the adult population, 48.7%, find it difficult to make ends meet and are limping towards payday. The statistics are revealed in the XIV report on `The State of Poverty in Spain` by the European Anti-Poverty Network in Spain (EAPN-ES).

This research includes for the first time an analysis of the relationship between poverty and access to housing. `The scarcity of affordable rents and the difficulties in acquiring a property increase inequalities and contribute to the persistence of social exclusion`, the report states. Indeed, housing-related expenses are the main drag on economic recovery for households.

Rent payments represent a high percentage of the monthly outlay of families living in Spain. `The average price has increased almost three times more than the income per person, which means a greater economic effort and a worsening of poverty`, stresses the report.

Therefore, the number of people at risk of poverty and/or social exclusion in Spain has reached 12.7 million people, some 400,000 more than last year and half a percentage point more than in 2022. `This is due to the rising cost of living,` confirmed the report`s authors.

Families with children are hardest hit by the rising cost of living, with child poverty rising from 27.8% to 28.9% compared to the previous year: some 2.3 million children and adolescents are at risk of poverty. In this regard, EAPN-ES points out that there are no poor children without poor homes, insisting also that being born into a vulnerable household increases the chances of staying poor in adulthood.
The face of poverty: women and young people

In Spain, poverty has a woman`s face, not because the rules of the Spanish language dictate that it is a feminine noun (`la pobreza`), but because this precarious state of affairs affects more women and young people than anyone else. `The data show that the feminisation of poverty is a structural problem`, said EAPN-ES.

Last year 5.1 million women were classed as poor, some 300,000 more women than men, and this is due to the continuing gender gap in the world of work. Research by EAPN-ES shows that having precarious, less stable employment doubles the risk of poverty.

Therefore, in 2023 around 2.5 million working people were poor. This is mainly due to the quality of the labour market that, despite the improvements resulting from the latest labour reform and the increase in the minimum wage, is still characterised by instability, affecting women and young people in particular.

Despite the worrying figures, EAPN-ES stresses that the situation would be much worse without the protective action of central government, which helps to prevent 10.6 million people from falling into poverty and some 2.4 million into severe poverty. EAPN-ES also highlights the essential role of public pensions as a factor in sustaining the quality of life for a part of the population: pensions alone reduce the risk of poverty by 16.4 points, i.e. some 7.8 million people. However, EAPN-ES proposes they should increase and extend the policies implemented in recent years and, above all, to extend the measures of the state`s `social shield` of support that expires on 30 June, `especially those focused on the most vulnerable groups.`

Woes within South Africa’s visa processes have left businesses and skilled workers in limbo, hurting investment and business activity as a result.

Recently, French diplomats warned that South Africa’s strict visa requirements are driving investors away.

In addition to this, Western Cape Provincial Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities, Mireille Wenger, said that a key obstacle attracting investment and expanding business is “the broken South African visa regime.”

“To facilitate foreign investment, companies need to be able to easily access South Africa and those who apply for critical skills visas typically help to develop new and existing sectors, in line with international best practice or by helping to new industries through skills development,” said Wegner.

Companies aiming to operate in the country must invest a minimum of R5 million and ensure at least 60% of their employees are South African.

However, applying for a work visa has often been described as a lengthy and complex process, exacerbated by an inefficient paper-based system that may take months.

Once those abovementioned boxes are ticked, the process is likely to be stalled by an existing backlog in visa applications.

Recently, the Western Cape government said that over 4,500 jobs and R1.6 billion in economic value are at risk of being destroyed due to continued backlogs and delays at Home Affairs in processing visas.

“These delays relate to processing and finalising of a small number of critical skills, spousal work visas, spousal, life partner, and permanent residency visa applications for training experts, who are needed to upskill and train employees in the sector, thereby enabling the creation of more South African jobs,” said Wegner.

The Western Cape Government previously conducted a survey to gauge the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of South Africa’s visa application process.

They engaged with around 150 business in sectors including ICT/Technology/Software service, tourism, finance and business services, manufacturing, agriculture and business process outsourcing.

A critical finding of this survey was that 78% of respondents rated the immigration application system in South Africa as “very poor” compared to other countries the respondents have operations in.

Another finding was that 26% of businesses moved their operations overseas as a result of the serious challenges they faced with the national visa system.

Other key results of the survey include:

Reasons for Visa Requirement:

Work purposes, particularly for employing critical skills not available in South Africa, and for businesses needing to employ foreign staff.

Top Three Visas Applied For:

Work visa (19%)
Critical skills work visa (18%)
Immigration visa (15%)

Top Three Complaints/Issues with Visa Application System:

Delays in approval process (17%)
Applicants not receiving feedback on applications (14%)
Lack of an escalation mechanism for complaints (10%)

Impact on Businesses Affected by Visa Application System:

Time delays (25%)
Cost implications (22%)
Inability to hire required skilled workers (21%)

Top Three Measures Taken by Respondents to Address Challenges:

Moving operations abroad (26%)
Employing fewer staff (17%)
Scaling down operations (17%)

“The fact is that the current visa regime is a significant deterrent to investment and the expansion of existing businesses, costing jobs and economic growth right at a time when we can ill-afford to lose either,” said Wenger.

In hopes of easing these constraints recent regulations replaced the highly-contested critical skills list with a new points-based system and introduced the remote work visa class.

This was received positively by businesses in South Africa, with the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa saying that they should ease the administrative burden that international companies with businesses in the country face when hiring skilled foreigners.

Thirteen Bangladeshis and three Pakistanis were found to be in possession of fake visitors’ visas, while one Bangladeshi, a Nigerian, three Pakistanis and four Ghanaians, failed to meet the entry requirements on arrival.

Twenty-five foreigners were intercepted and deported by Border Management Authority (BMA) immigration officials at OR Tambo International Airport (Ortia) on Tuesday night trying to enter South Africa illegally.
Thirteen Bangladeshis and three Pakistanis were found to be in possession of fake visitors’ visas, while one Bangladeshi, a Nigerian, three Pakistanis and four Ghanaians failed to meet the entry requirements on arrival.
They were intercepted on flights from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Ghana and Nigeria.
The BMA said they were deported back in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) regulations.
“[The] ICAO provide global standards for air transport operations and highlight that a person who entered a state illegally or denied entry shall be returned to their countries of origin by the respective airlines that brought them to South Africa and shall bear the costs of that travel,” it said.
According to the BMA, Ortia has been a target with travellers attempting to enter the country illegally.
On Sunday, five Bangladeshis and five Ethiopians were intercepted in collaboration with the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa).
BMA commissioner Michael Masiapato has warned travellers in contravention of the Immigration Act.
He commended the operations by BMA officials at Ortia, saying as the biggest and busiest airport in Africa, detection systems need to be advanced.
“The diligence and professionalism displayed by our team have prevented potential security threats and upheld the rule of law. We will continue to enhance our capabilities and escalate co-operation with Acsa security as well as collaborate with international partners to address and combat such illicit activities,” Masiapato said.
Acsa regional GM Jabulani Khambule said the latest interceptions of illegal travellers by the BMA demonstrate the importance of their multi-agency safety and security approach to enhance airport and aviation security.
“The aviation security model is vertically and horizontally integrated with various law enforcement authorities and is important to root out criminality at our airports.”
The BMA said it will intensify operations with the deployment of an additional 400 junior border guards who started duty on June 1 at various ports of entry.

The Western Cape High Court has ruled it would be in the best interests of a 12-year-old boy to relocate to Germany following a custody battle between his divorced parents.
The Western Cape High Court has ruled it would be in the best interests of a 12-year-old boy to relocate to Germany following a custody battle between his divorced parents.
Judge Gayaat Salie granted the mother, an air traffic controller who accepted a job offer in Germany, the right to have her son permanently removed from Cape Town to live with her despite the father submitting a counter application.
In her judgment, Judge Salie said: “The most salient words were however expressed by none other than the minor parties’ 12-year-old son, who forms the subject of this application.
‘It’s going to be a loss for one of the parents and a loss for me no matter what’.
“This heartfelt comment well illustrates the thorny feature of this type of applications in family matters. In a locale where both parents are stressing what they consider the best interest for their child, the consequent impasse places the court as the upper guardian of the minor child to make that decision.
“Through the development of our case law, in line with our Constitutional imperatives and the Children’s Act 38 of 2005, this decision must be considered along with various criteria applied to the facts of the matter. It is undeniable that each family dynamic is different and unique,” said Judge Salie.
According to court documents and two expert reports, the boy said he wanted to relocate to Germany with his mother.
After their 2015 divorce, “both parents cared for their son on an almost equal basis. Both play an important role in the minor’s daily life and interests”, the judgment noted.
The father had raised a number of concerns relating to his son’s accommodation, health care and schooling, including holiday contact and daily contact.
“The father finds a position where he would not see his son for three or more consecutive months as simply untenable particularly since father and son had spent time with each other equal to that of the (mother and son).
He is of the view that his son is at a vulnerable state of his development, and moreover given his generalised anxiety for which he attends psychotherapy sessions, he should not leave now but may sometime in the future when he is older.
“The father’s overarching concern is that his current close bond with his son will not survive relocation and that they will both miss out on their relationship,” the judgment read.
“The information placed before me, together with a balancing of all the relevant factors and applicable legal principles, satisfies me in coming to the conclusion that it is in the minor child’s best interests that the application for his relocation to Germany be granted now.
“A delay in his relocation would amount to him commencing the German academic year mid-way (January 2025) when his peers would have already commenced in August this year. I believe this would alleviate his anxiety as his peers would be in a similar boat so to speak and he can get support from the navigation of new terrain which his peers would similarly have to tread,” said Salie