South Africa will not tighten border controls ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup despite an influx of illegal immigrants, the home affairs minister said on Tuesday.
”Our emphasis is on facilitation of movement rather than tighter border control,” Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told journalists.
”Economic migrants will always find a way of moving into areas where they shouldn’t be. You are not going to be able to prevent that,” she said.
The worst thing South Africa could do was ”to go back to the past” when the apartheid government set up fences to restrict movement in the country, she said.
Hundreds of desperate illegal immigrants, mostly Zimbabweans fleeing grinding poverty in their country, daily jump the electric fences along the border to enter South Africa.
An estimated three to four million Zimbabweans are taking refuge in South Africa.
Tensions between migrants and locals erupted into deadly anti-immigrant attacks in South Africa in May, when about 60 people were killed and more than 100 000 displaced.
The Home Affairs Ministry has often been accused of inefficiency and corruption, but Mapisa-Nqakula said a special ”event visa” would help improve the immigration service ahead of the Confederations Cup in June 2009 and the 2010 World Cup.
”The event visa will enable visitors for both events to enter South Africa expediently at our ports of entry. It will also help prevent undesirable persons from boarding at their countries of origin,” she said.
Waiting periods for first-time South African passport applications has been reduced from 41 to 27 days, while work and business permit applications have been speeded up ahead of the global sporting events, she added.
”We are changing the way we are doing business,” she said.
Security, immigration and border officials will be deployed to all the nation’s 71 ports of entry, with special focus on key areas like the international airports in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
South African immigration officials will also be deployed to seven locations in Europe, Africa, India, Dubai and Hong Kong to help visitors coming for the sporting events.
The Confederations Cup will be staged in South Africa from June 14 to 28 next year, while the World Cup is slated from June to July 2010. — AFP
