BRIEFING TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON HOME AFFAIRS: CHILDREN TRAVELLING INTO AND OUT OF SOUTH AFRICA AND CITIZENS RELATED ABILITY TO OBTAIN UNABRIDGED BIRTH CERTIFICATES 26 May 2015 1
OUTLINE OF THE PRESENTATION 1. BACKGROUND 2. INTERNATIONAL BENCHMARK 3. MOVEMENT STATISTICS 4. IMPLEMENTATION OF REGULATIONS ON UNABRIDGED CERTIFICATES (UBC) 5. ACCELERATING ISSUANCE OF UBC 6. INTERVENTION AND INITIATIVES TO ACCELERATE ISSUANCE OF UBC 7. ACTIVITY TO CLEAR BACKLOG 8. PROJECTIONS 9. PROGRESS ON REGISTRATION OF BIRTH REGISTRATION WITHIN 30 DAYS AND LATE REGISTRATION OF BIRTH 10. CHALLENGES AND MITIGATIONS 11. BENEFITS FOR ACQUIRING UBC 12. WAY FORWARD 2
1. BACKGROUND • The Immigration Regulations, 2014 came into effect on 26 May 2014. • The Regulations introduced a number of changes in relation to the travelling of minors in and out of the Republic. • These changes are in line with South Africa’s international obligation to curb child trafficking and also in line with the provisions of the Children’s Act, 2005 (Act No. 38 of 2005). • It is estimated that 30 000 minors are trafficked through RSA borders every year and 50% of these minors are under 14 years. • In order to enable travellers to prepare for the implementation of the regulation dealing with minors travelling, its implementation was postponed to 1 June 2015. 3
1. BACKGROUND cont. • As from 1 of June 2015, the immigration regulations require that parents (married, single and divorcees) travelling with their children (minors under 18 years) must, in addition to their passport, produce an unabridged birth certificate (UBC) of the child reflecting the particulars of the parents of the child or any other document with similar details, when exiting and entering South African ports of entry. • In terms of the South African Passport and Travel Documents Act, both parents must provide consent in as far as the issuance of a travel document is concerned. • In the case of single parents where the other parent, at the time of birth registration, did not acknowledge paternity, such consent would not be required for the purposes of travelling with a minor. • Single parents who by virtue of agreement at the time of birth registration had an acknowledgement of paternity from the other party, must produce consent from such party for the purposes of travelling with a minor. 4
1. BACKGROUND Cont. • In the case of divorcees, the parents where custody of a child/children is shared, must produce consent from the other parent for the purposes of travelling with a minor. • Where a person is travelling with a child who is not his or her biological child, he or she must amongst others, produce • a copy of the unabridged birth certificate of the child; • an affidavit from the parents or legal guardian of the child confirming that he or she has permission to travel with the child. • Standard Operating Procedures for the above have been approved for implementation to ensure uniformity in all Ports of Entry. • The Department presented these requirements during the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Conference that took place in Cote ‘d Ivoire in February 2015 and there was no objection. 5
2. INTERNATIONAL BENCHMARK SOUTH AFRICA Country Biometric Unabridged Birth Certificate Police Clearance United Kingdom (UK) Yes It is a mandate document if minor is applying for visa and travelling with guardian or one parent No for short stay Canada It is required for 40 high risk countries, South Africa is exempted Consent form signed by both parents No for short stay United States of America (USA) Yes Birth Certificate and Consent form signed by both parents is required No for short stay Australia Yes Consent form signed by both parents No for short stay Schengen It is mandatory to enroll for biometric but if any applicant who applied after 6 June 2013, his/her biometric details are stored in the common visa information system (VIS) used by all Schengen countries. This details are valid till 59 months so applicant need not enroll for biometric data if travelling again within 59 months. Unabridged Birth Certificate is required to apply for visa applicant below 18 years No for short stay 6
3. MOVEMENT STATISTICS OF CHILDREN The following numbers of movements relating to persons under the age of 18 years have been recorded on the Department’s Movement Control System: 7
3. MOVEMENT STATISTICS OF CHILDREN cont. • Statistics have been obtained from the Department’s Enhanced Movement Control System (EMCS) on the numbers of movements recorded over the last four (4) calendar years at the ports of entry (Po. E). • The statistics do not include the movements of minors who travelled through a small number of POEs where the EMCS has not yet been installed, namely: • • Gemsbok Bray Makgobistad Zanzibar Mokopong Monanatsa Pass Boesmansnek 8. Saldanha Bay 9. Mossel Bay 10. Ongeluksnek 11. East London harbour 12. Durban harbour passenger terminal 13. Couga harbour 14. Onseepkans 8
4. IMPLEMENTATION OF REGULATIONS ON UNABRIDGED BIRTH CERTIFICATE (UBC) • South African children born from 3 March 2013 onwards and whose births are registered were issued with UBC on-the-spot. • Therefore, the population of children / minors that will be required to apply for unabridged certificates in line with the regulations would be children born between 1996 and February 2013. • On 1 August 2014 the DHA Ministers Management Meeting took a decision that Civic Services should develop a project plan that will improve citizen’s ability to obtain UBC in support of the new Immigration Regulation requirements (regulation 6(12)(a)(b)(c)) which will be implemented with effect from 01 June 2015. • The UBC project team was established to address the population of children / minors born between 1996 and February 2013 that are envisaged to apply for a UBC, hence already in possession of a passport. 9
5. ACCELERATING ISSUANCE OF UBC – PREMODIFICATION PROJECT • Approximately 17 million children were born between 1996 and February 2013 • Out of this population, approximately 1. 1 million children have been issued with valid SA passports • Out of the above population, 86 387 children born in 1996 with passports no longer require UBC due to the fact that they have turned 18 years of age. • The UBC Pre-modification project therefore focused on preparing the UBC for 1 071 145 who are potential travellers that will be immediately affected by the implementation of Immigration Regulations 6(12)(a)(b)(c) whilst the existing backlog on UBC applications had to be eradicated 10
6. INTERVENTIONS AND INITIATIVES TO ACCELERATING / FAST TRACK ISSUANCE OF UBC - (PROGRESS REPORT PRE-MODIFICATION) • In order to accelerate the issuance of UBCs the following interventions and initiatives were undertaken through the project: ü Development and implementation of a function/application that allows the insertion of parent particulars prior to them applying for UBC (Pre-modification Function). ü A UBC pre-modification team has been established and is currently pre- modifying birth records. Therefore children whose UBC has been Pre-Modified will receive their UBC onthe-spot upon application. ü The records indexing system was enhanced to: Ø Validate all data inputs against NPR before acceptance thereof; Ø ease record locating thereby significantly reducing the time and resources required to locate a record; Ø simplified the indexing of new records by changing it from manual capturing of IDN to scanning of the barcode on the registration form which has already been linked to the IDN 11
6. INTERVENTIONS AND INITIATIVES TO ACCELERATING / FAST TRACK ISSUANCE OF UBC - (PROGRESS REPORT PRE-MODIFICATION) cont. ü An instruction was issued to all front offices to encourage all parents applying for passports in respect of children under the age of 18 years to also apply for the UBC (Passport Control Instruction) ü In order to deal with capacity demands trainees (cadets) from the Learning Academy were trained and deployed to assist with UBC project. In addition officials from the respective provinces were seconded to the project. (Pre-modification team) ü An analysis was done of all UBC applications lodged to date and it was revealed that: Ø 26 098 from the 1 071 145 children with passports have already applied for UBC which has not been modified yet. These applications were prioritised and finalised. Ø amongst these applications there are 9 112 children who are below 18 years of age. These applications are currently being fast-tracked with the purpose of having it finalised before 1 June 2015. (Backlog) 12
6. INTERVENTIONS AND INITIATIVES TO ACCELERATING / FAST TRACK ISSUANCE OF UBC - (PROGRESS REPORT PRE-MODIFICATION) cont. • The current volume of UBC applications balance on-hand, i. e applications that are still within the 6 -8 week turnaround time, is 5 674 (18 May 2015). • In order to ensure that the backlog is eradicated and to avoid the creation of a cumulative backlog, work streams for both these categories were established. • Except for instances where records cannot be located (F 170), all new UBC applications are immediately modified to avoid cumulative backlog • An amount of 10 million rand has been allocated to digitize records for easy retrieval. This could expedite modification of records 13
Statistics: Children in possession of Passports Mar-13 4 984 UNABRIDGED CERTIFICATES ON CVT ALREADY PRINTED/COLLECTED AT INCEPTION OF PROJECT (C) 1 448 2012 33 688 1 555 2011 40 723 563 2010 47 755 427 2009 54 291 305 2008 60 912 261 2007 45 377 55 0 2006 40 801 42 0 2005 59 832 34 0 2004 69 578 106 2003 69 447 79 0 2002 70 230 83 0 2001 73 186 79 0 2000 76 580 63 0 1999 76 235 123 0 1998 78 566 55 0 1997 (May – Dec) 69 942 1997 (Jan – April) *12631 YEARS of birth (A) 1996 NO. OF PASSPORT HOLDERS PY (B) *86 387 1 071 145 APCAPTURED AGAINST CVT (MODIFIED) – (BACKLOG) CLOSING BALANCE AS AT 14 May 2015 (D) 389 939 26 098 0 551 739 0 7 5 288 PRE-MODIFIED 0 26 098 0 389 002 Total number of Children born between 1996 and 2013/03 with passports : 1 071 148 (Project Population) Total number of children already in possession of UBCs (CVT) (PRINTED/COLLECTED) : 5 288 Total number of children – application lodged against CVT (Backlog) : 26 098 Total number of children born in 1996 with passports no longer requiring UBC due age 18 : 86 387 Total number of children born in 1997 (Jan - Apr) with passports no longer requiring UBC due age 18 : 12 *Out of the 1 071 145 project population a total of 519 406 cases concluded 631 14
7. ACTIVITY PLAN TO CLEAR BACKLOG • There are 9112 outstanding UBC applications for children who are 18 years of age and below, who have applied for passports (backlog). • The current UBC applications is 5674 which is within 6 - 8 weeks • Prioritizing of UBC applications for below 18 years. The project team has been set up to clear the outstanding UBC will be by end of May 2015. • Matched all UBC applications against available records in batches • More than 14 000 records already been requested from records team • Increased modification of records norm from 120 to a minimum of 150 per day • Finalisation of outstanding UBC applications and be ready for issuance on or before 01 June 2015 15
8. PROJECTION OUTSTANDING (as at 14 May 2015) 551 739 Norm = 300 pre-modifications per day per official Officials (Pre-modification) Weeks until implementation Projected production for the month of May = = = PROJECTION of Cases Concluded BY END MAY Production Status as on 14 May 2015 Projected production (15 – 30 May) Production Performance against project end May = 519 406 = 99 000 = 618 406 Outstanding by end of May (Projection) = 452 739 ESTIMATED PROJECT CONCLUSION PHASE 1 = (end July 2015) 33 3 198 000
9. PROGRESS ON BIRTH REGISTRATION q There has been an increase in the number of births registered within 30 days since 2010 q An increase in the number of birth registration is a result of heightened awareness programmes aimed at encouraging birth registration within 30 days Subject & F year 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 Midyear birth 1 18 4867 estimates (Stats SA) 1 196 395 1 207 711 Birth Registration within 30 days (DHA) 650 682 704 527 602 530 17
10. CHALLENGES & MITIGATIONS CHALLENGES MITIGATION No records/ Missing records Effect F 170 (reconstruction of records) – an SMS is sent to the client Non response by client when requested to submit required documents (DHA 24) Reminder / Communication with client 18
11. BENEFITS FOR ACQUIRING UBC • Child protection and security (including protecting children from child trafficking) • Ability to travel with children across RSA borders from 01 June 2015 • Access to government socio-economic benefits (social grants) • UBC is required for elementary school admission, medical aid schemes and estates • Other countries need UBC for Permanent Residence and Visa applications, etc 19
12. WAY FORWARD • The new immigration regulations will be implemented from 1 June 2015. • Every year the number of requests for UBC will decrease as affected minors reach age of majority. • A Passport Control Instruction was issued that parents applying for a passport for their child/ren must simultaneously apply for a UBC for their child/ren. • A Hotline will be put in place to address emergency cases. • An amount of R 10 million has been allocated for the digitisation of records project 20
Thank you! End 21
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