MIGRATION
Home Affairs Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize intends to clear bottlenecks
Home affairs aims to ease entry for skilled migrants and to tackle asylum seeker and refugee backlogs
Home Affairs Minister Prof Hlengiwe Mkhize has two immediate tasks to attend to in her new portfolio: making it easier for skilled migrants and investors to get through the system, and clearing the huge backlogs in processing asylum seeker and refugee applications. The Department of Home Affairs insists it has taken considerable strides in making it easier for business travellers and skilled migrants to enter SA. But, on the other side of the same coin, refugees and asylum seekers face an uphill battle when dealing with home affairs. Mkhize says her department, which has released a white paper on international migration and the Refugees Amendment Bill, will not stray from the Constitution when dealing with asylum seekers. In the bill, home affairs proposes the establishment of processing centres for asylum seekers at SA’s borders and ports of entry — a marked departure from the country’s current policy. Migration groups have raised alarm about the controversial proposal, saying it a...
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