The Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, has welcomed Cabinet’s approval of the Revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection. Cabinet approval followed after an extensive programme of public consultation undertaken by the Department of Home Affairs, which covered all nine provinces and generated thousands of inputs from stakeholders and members of the public.

The Revised White Paper outlines the policy priorities for the most fundamental reform to South Africa’s citizenship, immigration and refugee protection frameworks in a generation. It is designed to clamp down on fraud and abuse, enhance national security, improve service delivery through digital transformation, and promote economic development.

Following last week’s Cabinet approval of the Revised White Paper, the Department of Home Affairs will initiate the process of drafting and tabling in Parliament the requisite legislative amendments to implement the Revised White Paper.

Key reforms approved by Cabinet in the Revised White Paper include:

• Refugee management reforms

The implementation of the “First Safe Country Principle,” which states that asylum seekers who have been granted refugee status or lawful protection in another country, or who pass through safe third countries to reach South Africa, are ineligible for asylum in South Africa. This is designed to combat the phenomenon of applicants “picking and choosing” South Africa as their preferred destination to claim asylum, while passing through other safe countries on the way. In order to mitigate the risk of refoulement, this reform will require the Minister of Home Affairs to, on an annual basis, designate safe third countries that have ratified the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and to withdraw such designation as and when the need arises. It also mandates the government to enter into bilateral agreements with safe third countries in order for the burden of migration in sub-Saharan Africa to be shared on a more equitable basis. By adopting this focus on regional migration flows, South Africa will be positioned to support the implementation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)’s route-based approach that seeks to move away from focusing on individual countries towards entire routes of migration.

• Citizenship reforms

These reforms introduce objective criteria for naturalisation and an annual window period for the submission of applications to prevent backlogs, a Citizenship Advisory Panel (CAP) to objectively consider and advise on applications, and a point-based system for economic pathways to citizenship. This is a new, merit-based approach to the granting of citizenship, as opposed to basing qualification solely on the number of years a foreigner has resided in the country. This new system will operate in parallel to the existing principle that a child with at least one parent who is a South African citizen at the time of birth automatically becomes a citizen, while a child born to non-South African parents have to apply for naturalisation.

• Immigration reforms

Reforms to the immigration system are designed to ensure alignment of the visa system with the recommendations of Operation Vulindlela and the Department’s digital transformation agenda. This includes the introduction of new visa categories for remote-work, start-ups, skilled workers (which combines the existing critical skills and general work visas into one category), sports and culture, and the replacement of corporate visas with sectoral work visas for specific industries. It also introduces a new, merit-based points-based system for certain visas and permanent residency, and supports the rollout of the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to digitalise and secure the visa application process, and to record biometrics for every foreigner in South Africa.

• Civil registration reforms

Civil registration reforms are anchored in the transformation of South Africa’s National Population Register (NPR) into a modern, digitally- enabled Intelligent Population Register (IPR) as the foundation for a Digital ID system. Unlike the existing NPR, which simply records basic information, including names, births, and deaths, an IPR uses advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, biometrics, interoperability and real-time data integration, to improve governance, integrated service delivery, and national planning. This will be augmented by the introduction, through digital channels, of mandatory birth and death registration for citizens and foreigners who reside in the country.

Minister Schreiber said: “The approval of the Revised White Paper by Cabinet marks another important milestone on our journey to fundamentally reform South Africa’s civics and immigration systems. The policy direction outlined in the Revised White Paper charts a new course for our country to build modern, efficient and secure systems that serve South Africa’s interests. I express my sincere appreciation to every stakeholder who participated in the broad ranging consultation process.”

Minister Schreiber concluded: “We will now work with the same focus and determination to convert the Revised White Paper into legislative amendments that consolidate and comprehensively reform our country’s citizenship, immigration and refugee protection systems, ensuring that they are fit-for purpose for generations to come.”

The Revised White Paper as approved by Cabinet can be accessed here.

Media Enquiries:

André Gaum - Acting spokesperson to the Minister, Cell: 082 211 5572

ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS