Opinion: Concession signals collapse of Home Affairs birth certificate idea

Source: Tourism Update, 25/09/2015

Unabridged Birth Certificate regulations cannot be enforced – and Home
Affairs latest move proves this.


Tourism Update has long held the view that the new immigration
regulations, requiring minors crossing SA`s borders to have UBCs, is
unworkable. The reason is simple: most minors crossing the borders are
from SADC states and, according to a Unicef 2013 report, the majority
have no form of documentary proof of birth.


Thus it is no surprise that concessions are now being made.


Last week, Home Affairs announced that minors from Lesotho will not
need a UBC when crossing the border if they have a letter from a South
African "learning institution" saying the institution holds the UBC in
safe keeping.


What the definition of a school or a learning institution is and how
the document will be verified by immigration officials are questions
we would like Home Affairs to answer.


This concession does not come as a surprise as the Department of Home
Affairs in Lesotho on its website does not even mention a service for
its citizens to get a UBC.


Studies show that child trafficking is linked to the incidence of
extreme poverty.


The Institute for Trafficked, Exploited & Missing Persons (ITEMP)
identifies poverty as the root cause of international human
trafficking. It has just completed a study that establishes a strong
correlation between countries` GDP and their odds of being a source or
destination country for international trafficking.


The US-based Borgon Project, an NGO dedicated to fighting extreme
poverty, points out that victims attempt to move from areas with
extreme poverty to areas with less extreme poverty. In these
instances, it is the desire of potential victims to migrate to escape
poverty that is exploited by traffickers.


It is therefore ironic that a concession has been made for Lesotho – a
dirt poor country, with a GDP per capita that is a fifth of South
Africa – while the regulations are throttling tourism growth from key
source markets of the 79 countries in the world with a higher GDP per
capita than SA, where trafficking is less likely.


If these UBC regulations were really about protecting children then
Home Affairs should be focussing its measures on the borders with SADC
states like Lesotho, Mozambique, where SA`s GDP per capita is nine
times higher, or Zimbabwe where it is 20 times higher.


The fact that Home Affairs` UBC tactic is unravelling is exposed when
it makes concessions like this on a border where it is most likely
needed.


In the meantime, every day, we believe minors needing to enter SA from
SADC states bypass the system one way or another as they are unable to
provide the necessary documentation.