South African bureaucracy – and the vast numbers of Zimbabweans applying for a special permit to remain in the country – could delay the deportation of citizens from the neighbouring state for months, writes IRINnews.
Home Affairs Minister Nkosozana Dlamini-Zuma has said that they have close on 40,000 applications for residence permits.
The deportation of undocumented Zimbabwean nationals would only begin once all applications were processed, the minister said.
The Zimbabwean Dispensation Process (ZDP) aims to establish the number of Zimbabweans residing in the country and regularize their residence.
Home Affairs said there would be no extension of the 31 December 2010 deadline for applying, but even incomplete applications would be accepted for completion at a later date.
HVOR ER GRÆNSEN?
Low skilled workers – such as gardeners and domestic workers – are also eligible for the permit, which would be valid for up to four years, depending on the validity of the passport. Migration analysts believe it unlikely that such “a window of opportunity” to formalize their status would open again, as South African immigration laws regarding low-skilled migrants are fairly rigid, and the country suffers high unemployment levels.
FLASKEHALSE I SAGSBEHANDLING
Valid travel documents were required to obtain a permit, but “blockages” were making it difficult. The Zimbabwean authorities in Zimbabwe were issuing about 500 passports a day, Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, head of the refugee and migrant programme at Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), told IRIN, but at the end of November 2010 about 30,000 applications were outstanding.
Migration analysts told IRIN the permit system was likely to benefit Zimbabweans in formal employment, and those who were students or business owners, rather than poor and vulnerable migrants.
ET RESULTAT AF VOLD
In September 2010 South Africa announced an end to the moratorium on deporting Zimbabweans, and said it would resume the policy of ejecting undocumented migrants from that country on 1 January 2011, in line with South Africa’s policy of deporting all undocumented foreign nationals.
About 200,000 Zimbabweans were deported in the year to the April 2009 moratorium, which was implemented in the aftermath of the 2008 violence that killed more than 60 people – about a third of whom were South African nationals – and displaced about 100,000 others.
