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Refugee laws to change
30/05/2006 13:23 - (SA)
Cape Town - The Refugees Act is to be amended to ensure better compliance with South Africa's constitutional and international obligations, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Tuesday.
Speaking in the National Assembly during debate on her budget vote, she said draft legislation would be introduced later this year.
"In particular, by streamlining the status determination process, we will be able to prevent future backlogs and facilitate the integration of genuine refugees," she said.
The refugee backlog project - intended to reduce the huge backlog and delays in finalising asylum applications - would also be publicly launched on World Refugee Day on June 20.
On the implementation of the long-delayed Immigration Amendment Act and accompanying regulations, started a year ago, she said the department was now satisfied that both the Act and regulations were a sound policy basis for managing immigration.
"We are happy that the policy objectives set by the President (Thabo Mbeki) in 2004, when he directed us to amend the Immigration Act, have been met.
"We do, however, recognise that there have been teething problems in the implementation of the Act, and these are being addressed."
It should also be realised that her department only facilitated the import of needed skills into the country, and did not decide what those skills were.
"The Act requires me to consult with other ministers and their departments in deciding on quotas, and with the recent launch of JIPSA (Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition)... we will revise the current quotas in consultation with other stakeholders."
Mapisa-Nqakula said she had also noted representations about the current two-year limit on the intra-company transfer work permit, and this period would be extended.
Progress was also finally being made in addressing structural weaknesses pertaining to ports of entry, particularly the problem of congestion at the major international airports.
A task team had been appointed to monitor the implementation of the "rescue plan" on an ongoing basis to ensure the proper functioning of structures in these ports of entry.
Since then, the problem of congestion had, to a certain extent, been resolved.
The task team was also working on extending some of these solutions to other ports of entry, she said.
- SAPA
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