Do Not Blame Unemployment On Expatriates

There appears to be a serious problem unravelling at Immigration and Labour offices, resulting in scores of non-citizens either being systematically denied residence and work permits or at the worst, being forced to go back to their countries of origins.

Sadly some of these cases are happening to people who have lived all their lives here, from primary schools to Universities until they started to develop career paths in Botswana and began contributing to the economy in various positive ways.

A good number of these people today have no connections whatsoever with the so-called countries of origins where their parents migrated from many years ago to settle in Botswana. It is worrying that even after schooling here, working here for so long, these groups of people today find themselves still having to deal with work and residence permits renewal issues, and worst, deportations to their parents’ countries of origins, all in the name of creating jobs for Batswana.  We need to be very careful lest we send out wrong signals out there to possible foreign investors, that we are an unwelcoming lot, thankless and cruel, when dealing with non-citizens even those that had invested so much in our economy. In fact it is embarrassing that we do not have a policy of automatic citizenship attainment or permanent residence attainment for those immigrants that have stayed in Botswana for at least 10  years. Today it has become common to see descendants of immigrants who have spent over 40 years in Botswana, still fighting for work permits renewal or being sent home, after more than 40 years in Botswana, a country they had come to call home.

Editor's Comment
Congratulations Anicia Gaothuse!

The contest had 10 beautiful young girls as finalists and unfortunately only one could wear the crown.The judges picked Anicia Gaothuse. To all those who feel their contestant should have won ahead of Anicia for whatever reason, hardly; the judges found Anicia to be the best among the best, so desist from disrespecting our newly crowned queen on social media or anywhere else, for that matter! Each of the 10 beautiful young women had supporters...

Have a Story? Send Us a tip
arrow up