Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs has commended the department on its Zimbabwean Documentation Project stating that it is going to help in establishing how many Zimbabweans are in the country legally and illegally. The department in 2009 embarked on a project of documenting Zimbabweans who are in the country, in response to the high inflow of Zimbabwean nationals.
Chairperson of the Committee, Ms Maggie Maunye said even though the Committee was pleased with the Department’s progress, it was still concerned that there was no documentation of other foreign nationals. It emerged at the meeting that there were no statistics on foreign nationals in the country either legally or illegally. “We feel that this project should be expanded to other foreign nationals, as some foreign nationals claim to be asylum seekers when they should be economic migrants,” said the Chairperson.
The Committee also hoped that the documentation of unskilled Zimbabweans would help eliminate their exploitation by business people. Ms Maunye regretted that the country did not have a policy that dealt with economic migrants. The Committee has asked the department to brief it every second month on how far they were with the registration of migrants. The Department has approved 134 369 permits out of 275 762 applications it received since the registration project began.
For inquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact:
Kanyisa Ndyondya (Ms)
Tel: +27 (0) 21 403 8041
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E-mail: kndyondya@parliament.gov.za
