PAC calls for relaxation of immigration laws
Innocent Selatlhwa | Tuesday June 13, 2017 17:22
Selebi-Phikwe West legislator Dithapelo Keorapetse lamented that academics, lawyers and many other people with scarce skills always have it tough in obtaining visas to come to Botswana as well as obtaining work and residence permits.
“We need to open up for people. We have 97 countries where we do not require visa, now we have over 40 nationals on the visa restriction list. We cannot be shutting out activists, academics, human rights lawyers,” he said. Keorapetse could not get a response as to how many of those in the visa restriction list have applied before and were granted visas. Bogolo Kenewendo lamented that the 70% score set by the ministry for granting one a work and residence permit was too high. “This pushes away possible investors. Some more developed countries have their score lower than 70%. We should seriously look into that,” she said.
Permanent secretary , Banny Molosiwa said reforms were underway to make it easier for those with special skills to be allowed ease of entry into the country.
“We have intentions of benchmarking in Rwanda and Mauritius where their system is very good. We are also working on cutting the waiting time for visa applications from 30 days to 14 days,” she said.
The committee also quizzed on the involvement of Directorate of Intelligence Services (DIS) in the visa application process. Molosiwa responded that they play an advisory role to the department. To this, Keorapetse said he did not see the worth of the DIS in the processes, describing them as a costly nuisance.
Meanwhile, Kenewendo called on the ministry to come up with a predator list of all convicted sex/gender offenders. Molosiwa promised they will look into the issue.