Namibia: Home Affairs Drowning Under Fake Marriages

Source: New Era, 09/06/2018

Windhoek �` The Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration yesterday
revealed it continues to battle the so-called `marriages of
convenience`, mostly involving foreigners seeking to live in Namibia.
Briefing Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila who paid a
familiarisation visit to the ministry yesterday, acting Chief
Immigration Officer of the Department of Immigration Control and
Citizenship Nehemia Nghishekwa said such marriages often end on a
messy note because of failure to keep promises between
those `married`.



`These are people who come to Namibia and get married on a contract
basis and we only come to know about it when there is a default in
payments by the partner,` he said.
The PM also heard that the ministry does not have accurate birth and
death statistics - such as causes of deaths - but said it is working
on a new system that it believes would be a game changer.
Home Affairs Director of Civil Registration Anette Bayer-Forsingdal
briefed Kuugongelwa-Amadhila on this, saying it was due the fact that
everything is done manually and typically when one collects data
manually it would mostly likely contain inaccuracies.
`This is because everything is manually recorded from the ministry of
health and only collect data from the ministry of health, not from
private doctors, that is the problem,` she said.
However, she said the ministry is currently working on a new system
to capture this important information.
Nghishekwa said during the last financial year the ministry managed
to install a new electronic management system at port of entries and
also managed to introduce the e-passport.
He said that during the year under review the country received just
over two million visitors, while just under two million left Namibia.
He said despite limited resources his department managed to remove
1,595 prohibited immigrants from the country.
Also, Nghishekwa said the ministry managed to print 77,873 passports,
issued 6,408 work visas, 37,820 temporary work visas, 1,128 permanent
residence permits and just over 6,000 student visas.
He said currently the country has over 7,684 asylum seekers and
refugees with the majority being from the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC). He said that refugees that are recognised are issued
with identification documents and currently the ministry is working
on the introduction of a refugee passport.
Also, he said, there are 922 Namibian refugees in Botswana, which has
given those refugees two months to leave the country.
He said the Botswana government has invited Namibia to a meeting in
that country on Thursday in that regard.