Question NW4548 to the Minister of Home Affairs
08 December 2022 - NW4548
van der Merwe, Ms LL to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
Whether, in view of a recent presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs that indicates that the Republic is home to 15 million undocumented persons, he has found that the numbers point to (a) a complete failure by his department to implement its own immigration laws and (b) a safety and security threat to the nation; if not, why not in each case; if so, what steps will be taken to remedy the perceived illegal migration crisis in the Republic?
Reply:
a) Honourable member, firstly I want to iterate that the department does not believe that figure is accurate as we have not been provided scientific evidence that it is so. The most credible source the department is aware of is the figures given by the Statistician General Risenga Maluleke where a figure of 3.95 million foreign nationals are said to be in South Africa according to their mid-year population estimates in 2021.
Secondly, the Department is not failing to implement its own immigration laws as indicated in its annual reports, through various programmes, including the law enforcement operations in the security cluster to detect unlawful immigrants, prosecute and deport them or issue orders to leave.
To prevent re-offending, their details are captured on the Visa Entry and Stop List and the entry as well as departure of all travellers are recorded on the Movement Control System. This is one of the tools that Port Control utilises to prevent undesirable or prohibited persons from entering into the country.
The review of the systems of managing the issuing and extension of temporary residence visas and conferring of permanent residence permits is underway to improve the effectiveness of the policy, infrastructure and implementation.
b) The porousness of the country’s borders is well-documented, hence the establishment of the Border Management Authority to respond and manage the borderline under one strategic and implementation structure. The performance in the target areas will be reviewable within the 2023/24 financial year, with effect from 1 April 2023.
The department will continue with its enforcement activities within the country as well as the deployment of the newly formed Border Guard of the Border Management Authority.
END