24 August 2005

Address by the Hon. NN Mapisa-Nqakula, to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee of the National Assembly on the 24^th of August 2005, Room S35, Parliament, Cape Town

Chairperson, Hon. Hlomani Chauke

Honourable Members of the Portfolio Committee

For the past few weeks before the commencement of this particular session of Parliament, I have been nagging the Chairperson for an opportunity for me to come and brief the Committee at an earliest available time, on some of the urgent matters that will be in the public domain by the end of this month.

I am glad that we can have this short time for me to address the committee once again, and I must express my sincere apology that we had to convene so hastily in this regard.

Before we can start, Chairperson, allow me to inform the Committee that I received a report about what had happened in the scheduled portfolio committee meeting yesterday, where my department was expected to brief the committee on various matters pertaining to our work. I will not necessarily address this matter as part of my briefing, except to say that I have received an undertaking from the department that the matter will be addressed with the portfolio committee and that whatever problems that resulted in the events of yesterday will be sorted out immediately. We have also noted the resolution of the committee in this regard and this will be implemented accordingly. On my part as the ultimate Member of Parliament who accounts to this committee, I want to reiterate our commitment to continue to cooperate with the committee and support you in carrying out your mandate as a committee of parliament. That obligation that we have, by law, is an obligation we take seriously and would not abrogate. It is because of this that I have stressed the need for the department to come and brief this committee on all the issues that you have identified as a matter of urgency.

Chairperson and Honourable Members,

There are two matters on which we have decided to brief the committee this morning. I wanted us to do this, because in the coming few weeks we shall make certain announcements on these matters and this would have been the only opportunity to brief the committee since I might be away on official business between now and the time of these announcements.

The first matter relates to the problem of management of our international obligation to provide protection to refugees who present themselves at our ports of entry for asylum.

We have received several enquiries both from Honourable Members and the public that have demonstrated the extent to which we have a serious problem in the manner we are managing this important area of our work.

In responding to the last parliamentary question that we have received on this matter, I had indicated that I have become very worried about the reliability of the official statistics that are being provided by our department to the public regarding the extent of the backlog in processing asylum applications. I am equally worried about the interventions we are making as a department to deal with the problem of the backlog in processing these applications. This problem has resulted in a situation that seriously undermines our ability to carry out the moral and legal obligation we have towards refugees. Our system is failing them. During my interaction with some of these applicants, I have realised that some of them have been awaiting their status determination for a period exceeding ten years.

Two major problems are now confronting us in this regard, firstly that by not granting the status of refugees to those who deserve and require protection, we are making it difficult for them to live in decent conditions where they can have work and be integrated into communities. Some of them are families that include children and these children need to be taken care of.

Secondly, we also have a problem that as a country If we do not finalise these applications, many people who do not qualify for asylum remain in our country for longer periods taking advantage the Inefficient system.

I have therefore decided that from the beginning of next month, we are going to roll out a six months programme to deal with the refugee applications backlog with a view firstly to determine the exact extent of this backlog and secondly to process the outstanding applications.

The Backlog Project will have its own capacity that we are employing in the form of people, equipment, offices and so on. Normal Refugee Reception Offices of the department will continue to deal with current applications that they have, with the cut-off from applications lodged in the previous three months, additional to any such old cases they are already dealing with.

I have received a report that preparations for this project are proceeding well and that we have identified some of the premises we are going to utilize in the different provinces as well the recruitment and training of much needed personnel mainly from thousands of grandaunts who are currently unemployed. We have received pledges of support from the UNHCR as well as stakeholders such as the International Organisation on Migration for the project. We are still discussing with some of them on the exact nature of the support they will be giving to the project and we are encouraged by the possibility for such partnerships.

I must also indicate that the project is in addition to the work that we have started to reorganize our refuge affairs section of the department. In this regard we plan to create more capacity for refugee affairs, review our standard operating procedures. inculcate public awareness and education, and ensure adherence to a human rights culture in this area of work.

Chairperson,

The second matter has to do with the Holding Facility that the department manages to deport illegal immigrants, the Lindela Repatriation Facility.

Honourable Members might have read about the number of deaths that are happening in the centre from time to time. Of course it normal in a centre such as this for deaths to occur, the frequency of these reports is disturbing for me. We also are not in possession of reliable statistics about all of these deaths, but the problem is of such a nature that we cannot just sit and not act to establish the facts.

In this regard I must inform this committee that I have decided to set up an independent commission of inquiry Into the deaths at the facility with a view to determine the circumstances surrounding these deaths, with specific reference to the extent to which procedures and instructions were followed. The Committee has been specifically requested to make recommendations to the Minister with regard to the implementation of systems and protocols to deal with illegal foreigners awaiting deportation who are ill.

The Commission, which was appointed early this month, started their work on the 8^th of August and I have requested that they provide me with a report and their recommendations within a month, it is chaired by the Rev. Dr. Otto Mbangula. The other two members are Adv. Ngoako Ramahlodi and Dr Hashim Moomal. The Legal Services unit in the Department of Home Affairs is providing the administrative and secretarial support tc the Commission.

I will make announcements about the recommendations of the commissions and our action in implementing them.

I had thought that since these two matters will be announced in the coming month, I should use the opportunity to brief the committee as we have been receiving several questions from here about these matters. I am therefore coming here to appeal to Members to allow us a chance to see if we cannot resolve some of these matters, and we shall come back to give a report on the progress we have made in this regard.

I am sure that the committee will bear with us in this regard, Once again, let me indicate that I know that there are many other matter that the committee will like to deal with regarding Immigration and that I am sure the Director General and his team should come and address as initially planned.

I thank you