SOUTH AFRICA – Radiological Report and Police Record Waivers

02 May 2023 | SA Migration

The South African Department of Home Affairs has issued a new directive providing relief to visa and permit applicants from April 11, 2023. It does not apply to those with applications which have already been filed and are currently under adjudication.

Previously, applicants for long-term temporary residence visas (“TRVs”) and permanent residence permits (“PRPs”) had to submit police clearance certificates (“PCCs”) from all countries resided in for 12 months or more since their 18^th birthday, they are now only required to submit PCCs from all countries they resided in for 12 months or more, since having attained the age of 18, in the five years immediately preceding the date of submission of their application. This provides considerable relief to applicants who have resided in many countries, particularly those who did so many years ago. It can be time-consuming, difficult and in some instances, impossible, to obtain police clearance certificates from certain countries, particularly, but not only, when the foreign national lived there a long time ago and they do not have any official records.

Where it was not possible to obtain a PCC from a particular country, prior to the implementation of the directive, it was necessary to apply to the Minister of the Department of Home Affairs to waive (exempt) the applicant from the requirement to provide the document before they could apply. This process could take from 6 to 12 months, if not longer, due to waiver processing delays. This would significantly delay the foreign national’s ability to apply, and it also created a considerable amount of extra work for the Department processing the waiver requests in an already overburdened system.

Also, whereas before – except for pregnant women and children under the age of 12 years – applicants for long-term TRVs and PRPs were required to submit a radiological report completed and signed by a Radiologist, pursuant to the examination of chest X-rays, confirming that they displayed no signs of active Pulmonary Tuberculosis, the new directive exempts them from the requirement to do so. The Department’s rationale for dropping this requirement is not clear; however, applicants are already required to provide a medical report completed and signed by a medical doctor confirming that they are in a good state of health and noting any medical condition(s) from which they might suffer. It is also possible to accurately test for TB using the Mantoux tuberculin skin test, which does not require the individual to be exposed to radiation as is the case with chest X-rays. Thus, the additional radiological report was largely unnecessary.

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ZEP expiry: Many permit holders intend to stay in SA until very last minute - Zimbabwean ambassador

28 Apr 2023 | News24

No Zimbabwean citizen has approached their government for assistance in being repatriated back home before their Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEP) expire, the country's ambassador to South Africa has said.

In a telephone interview with News24, Ambassador David Hamadziripi said they only have Zimbabweans who indicated they might, if need be, go back home on the eve of the permits' expiry date, 30 June.

"We have not helped anyone going back to Zimbabwe. This is because no one came to us with a formal request for that assistance, but what we came across during the mapping exercise were Zimbabweans who said they might need the help closer to the expiry of the permits. That's May and June," he said.

The special permits were due to expire in December last year, but a six-month extension was granted to allow people to apply for other available visas.

But come 30 June, an estimated 178 000 Zimbabweans living in South Africa face an uncertain future and possible deportation.

Opportunities 'at home'

Fewer than 5% of those with ZEPs have applied for other permits.

There is currently a court challenge by the Zimbabwe Immigration Federation to seek interim relief, and another by the Helen Suzman Foundation challenging the legality of the cancellation of permits.

While there seems to be a wait-and-see approach, Hamadziripi said many Zimbabwean citizens had declared their intention to stay until the last minute.

He said: "Even before the court cases got under way, we came across Zimbabweans who intended to stay until the last month of the validity of their permits."

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said his government is prepared for its nationals to return and that they "have opportunities to contribute [to] here at home".

The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

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Italy narrows asylum rights in new clampdown on immigration

26 April 2023 | News24

Some of the 600 migrants rescued on a trawler some 100 miles of the coast of Sicily arrive in the port of Catania, Italy, 12 April 2023. The vessel was escorted by the 'Nave Peluso' of the Coast Guard on the same day after over 200 people rescued at sea also landed in Catania and Messina on two other Coast Guard vessels. The Italian government on 11 April called a state of emergency on all the national territory following the exceptional rise in migrant flows across the Mediterranean. EPA-EFE/ORIETTA SCARDINO

Italy's nationalist government approved a bill in the upper house of parliament on Thursday that aims to reduce the number of migrants who can claim some form of asylum and curb integration efforts.

Italy‘s nationalist government approved a bill in the upper house of parliament on Thursday that aims to reduce the number of migrants who can claim some form of asylum and curb integration efforts.

The bill, which still needs the approval of the lower house to become law, was drawn up after a shipwreck off southern Italy in February that killed more than 90 migrants.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said the legislation, which includes tougher jail terms for human smugglers, is intended to dissuade people from putting their trust in traffickers and trying to reach Italy illegally.

Critics say the bill is repressive and will do nothing to halt the flow of migrants seeking a better life in Europe, but will instead force ever more newcomers into illegality.

Among the most contested measures is a decision to eliminate “special protection” residency permits that authorities can offer migrants who don’t qualify for asylum, but who face humanitarian risks back home, or have family ties in Italy.

The government said the system was being abused, noting that in 2022 authorities had handed out 10,506 special protection permits against 7,494 permits offering refugee status and 7,039 that granted a separate form of international protection.

The bill also halts state-funded Italian language courses and eliminates legal advice services for migrants hosted in official reception centres.

Italy has seen a recent surge in arrivals by boat migrants, with 34,715 people reaching the country from Jan. 1- April 19, against 8,669 in the same period last year, alarming Meloni, who took office in 2022 promising to reduce migrant flows.

Earlier this week, Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida said Italians were at risk of “ethnic replacement”, drawing criticism from centre-left parties who accused him of promoting white supremacy – a charge he has rejected.

Opposition senators urged the government to do more to help migrants be absorbed into the workplace, saying Italy needed hundreds of thousands of new workers as the population declines.

“Why if you are enemies of illegal immigration are you doing all you can to push people into illegality,” said Ivan Scalfarotto, a senator with the centrist Italia Viva party.

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I’m officially a South African: joy of Limpopo man who’s battled to get an ID for 10 years

26 April 2023

For years his life was in limbo. He struggled to get a job, couldn’t get a driver’s licence and he wasn’t able to get married – all because he wasn’t recognised as a South African citizen. 

Tebogo Khoza (26) was born in South Africa but he had nothing to prove it. For almost a decade he’s battled to show he is who he says he is – and finally he has the precious piece of paper that will allow him to get on with his life.

The North Gauteng high court in Pretoria recently ruled the department of home affairs should register him as a South African and issue him with an identity document. 

The first step was giving him a birth certificate and when he received it he could hardly believe his eyes.

“I was very happy,” he tells YOU. 

“On the night of the court verdict I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking, ‘When I get my ID, I’m going to get a driver’s licence and a passport’.” - Tebogo Khoza

According to the births and deaths registration act of 1992, all children born in South Africa must be registered within 30 days. 

Tebogo’s parents didn’t register him because they were undocumented immigrants – so to all intents and purposes, their son didn’t exist. 

“I grew up in a rural area. At times I wanted to go live in town so I could find work there or work in a mine, but I couldn’t because I had no documents,” he recalls.

When he was six years old his mother passed away and the Thabang Children’s Project later took him in. 

Cecil White, who used to work at the child and youth centre in Thabazimbi, Limpopo, accompanied Tebogo to their local home affairs office to apply for his birth certificate and ID when the boy was 16. They had no idea just how long it would take to get those life-changing documents.

Yet Cecil (60) resolved to see it through. He even sought legal counsel from Lawyers for Human Rights to help the young man he regarded as his own son.

“I thought if there was one last battle I would fight, it would be this,” Cecil says.

His hard work was rewarded when the high court ruled in their favour. “God answered my prayers,” Tebogo says.

Tebogo’s parents fled political unrest in Eswatini and entered SA illegally before he was born. 

He can’t remember much of his early childhood but recalls being raised by his mom in an informal settlement near Thabazimbi, after his parents split up. He didn’t have a relationship with his father.

When his mother passed away after an illness, his maternal grandmother, Lucy Ndlovu, tracked him down to take care of him. But they ended up depending on the welfare of others because she wasn’t a South African citizen and couldn’t access any social assistance from the government.

Lucy collected food parcels from the Thabang Children’s Project, a non-governmental organisation that helps vulnerable children in the community by providing them with meals, school stationery and casual clothes, among other things.

The NGO also has a centre that houses abandoned kids and children in need and in December 2006 Lucy made the tough decision to hand her grandson over to carers so they could raise him. 

For Tebogo, it was a blessing. “When I got there, I saw other kids playing. I could play, eat and just be like a child. That’s why I loved it there,” he says. 

He was nine when he arrived at the centre, Cecil recalls. “He had no birth certificate, no paperwork, he hadn’t received any schooling.”

However, he saw potential in the young boy and helped put him through school. Cecil admits it was a tough task because schools were reluctant to accept him without documentation and he basically had to go on his knees and beg for Tebogo to be enrolled. 

'Our country has a very good constitution and a good children’s act. It states that every child has the right to an education.' - Cecil White

“Even if a child doesn’t have a birth certificate, according to the childcare act, a child has a right to care, safety and education. We fought on those grounds and we won.” 

Living without documentation became even more challenging as Tebogo grew older so he and Cecil turned to the department of home affairs for help.

Officials said they couldn’t register him because he didn’t have any documents to verify his birth and told him to go to Eswatini to have his birth registered there and get a passport. 

Cecil accompanied him but the pair faced another hurdle at the border when Eswatini officials refused them entry, despite the fact they had documentation from home affairs detailing the reason for their visit.

“I was very confused because both South Africa and Eswatini refused me citizenship. Like, where am I from? I was shocked at how people treated me,” Tebogo says. 

“They treated me like I’m a foreigner and like I’m nothing. I started thinking, ‘Why doesn’t God open a door for me?’”

Cecil wasn’t going to give up without a fight. He contacted the department of home affairs several times to find a solution and after being sent from pillar to post he eventually turned to Lawyers for Human Rights. 

Lawyer Thandeka Chauke was part of the team who acted on Tebogo’s behalf and submitted applications to the home affairs office in Lephalale, Limpopo, and to the home affairs minister to have his birth registered. 

When there was no response, they turned to the high court as a last resort, she says.

“Our motion was granted by the court and the department of home affairs had 30 days to comply with the court order. The 30 days expired on 30 March and on that date the department indicated they had generated an ID number for him and issued his birth certificate.

“He’s now waiting on his smartcard ID. He was told they couldn’t issue it on the same day because the systems were down and they had to send it to another home affairs office.” 

The card should be ready in a couple of weeks and Tebogo is looking forward to getting on with his life. He’s working as an animal-keeper on a game farm in Limpopo – a job Cecil helped him get as he waited for his documentation. Cecil has been with him on every step of his journey and Tebogo regards him as a father figure. 

“He’s the one who helped me and taught me about life,” he says. “He taught me how to be a man.” 

Tebogo and his partner, Maria Mlthali (26), have a five-year-old son, Junior. When Maria was pregnant, he proposed but he couldn’t plan a wedding because he didn’t have the required paperwork that would allow him to marry. 

Now he plans to do exactly that. “It’s like I have millions in my hands,” he says.

www.samigration.com

Australia unveils direct pathway to citizenship for New Zealanders

26 April 2023 | Reuters

SYDNEY, April 22 (Reuters) - Australia announced on Saturday a direct pathway to citizenship for New Zealanders living in the country, reversing controversial visa rules a day before a visit by New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.

Hipkins, set to visit Queensland state's capital Brisbane on Sunday, hailed the move as "the biggest improvement in the rights of New Zealanders living in Australia in a generation".

The changes, effective from July, meant New Zealand citizens living in Australia for four years or more could apply for citizenship without having to become permanent residents first, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement.

"We know that many New Zealanders are here on a Special Category Visa while raising families, working and building their lives in Australia. So I am proud to offer the benefits that citizenship provides," Albanese added.

New Zealand has long campaigned for changes since visa rules were altered in 2001, making it tougher for Kiwis in Australia to get citizenship.

The reform would bring New Zealanders' rights more into line with those of Australian expats living in New Zealand, Australia's Labor government said.

"Kiwis taking up Australian citizenship will still retain their New Zealand citizenship. These dual citizens are not lost to New Zealand – but draw us closer together," Hipkins said in a statement.

The changes also meant children born in Australia since July to an Australia-based New Zealand parent would be automatically entitled to Australian citizenship, he said.

"This will make critical services available to them," he said, adding the changes delivered on an Albanese promise that no New Zealander be left "permanently temporary" in Australia.

Around 670,000 New Zealand citizens live in Australia, while there are around 70,000 Australians in New Zealand, according to Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Australia's Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil ruled out the changes being extended to other migrant groups, saying it was a "special arrangement with New Zealand".

The reform was about ensuring the "strong friendship we have is reflected properly in law", she told ABC television.

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