South Africa Plan to Tighten Immigration Controls
August 05 2008 by Tamar Blieden
Concerns that non-South Africans on illegally obtained South African passports are flocking into the United Kingdom has sparked the South African government to introduce tighter immigration controls.
The UK Home Office have recently threatened to implement visa restrictions to 11 countries, including South Africa, Brazil and Malysia. They have given these countries till the end of the year to prove they are working hard to curb passport abuse. And new South African rules aim to do just that, reports www.globalvisas.com, immigration and visa experts.
Yesterday, South African home affairs director-general Mavuso Msimang explained how the government is working on setting up a network of officers and officials who will be trained to detect illegal or fake passports by March next year.
Another initiative in the pipeline is the introduction of a transit visa. Those who pass through a South African airport en route to another destination do not have to currently pass through immigration. This is set to change and transit visas will be introduced.
As Msimang explained, "We are working out a system of checking people as they board, even before they come into South African territory." These planned changes were identified at the recent, UK and South African bi-national summit.
Each year as many as 1000 people enter the UK on South African passports; however they are not South African. South Africa therefore needs to keep a tighter reign on those coming in and going out of the country if they want to retain the six-month visa waiver agreement with the United Kingdom.
Such efforts to make immigration systems more difficult are also part of efforts to increase security ahead of the 2010 Football World Cup to be held in the country.
Tightening immigration policy aims to reduce the possibility of illegal immigrants in South Africa and going elsewhere, stop people trafficking and clamping down on documentation obtained through corruption.
Visa requirements for South Africans going to Britain, may result in retaliation, where the UK too may need to obtain a visa to come to South Africa.
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