Staff Reporter

TRADITIONAL leaders and members of the community have welcomed the Government’s 16 January ultimatum to illegal immigrants to either leave the country or approach the relevant offices to resolve their non-compliance with the country’s immigration laws.

However, they have also expressed concern that the grace period — from 15 December to 16 January — is too short and might lead to disruption of farming activities in the northern regions.

Simon Itashipu, the headman of the Oshalumbu village in the Ohangwena Region, said that “illegal immigrants” — mostly Angolan youths — are the pillars that ensure the success, resilience and sustainability of subsistence farming in the northern region.

The Minister of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security, Lucia Iipumbu, has this week declared an amnesty that provides a limited opportunity to all foreign nationals who have overstayed in Namibia or entered the country illegally to present themselves to the immigration authorities so that they can be processed out of the country without any prosecution.

“We welcome the month-long amnesty, but it is too short. People would need at least a year to solve the non-compliance issues. The process to acquire the necessary documents, which currently takes long and is complicated, needs to be made simpler and more easily accessible,” he said, adding that both livestock and crop farmers in the northern regions are heavily dependent on illegal immigrants from Angola.

“There is an illegal immigrant employed in almost every second house, either as a cattle herder or domestic worker. Our own [Namibian] youths do not want to work in the mahangu fields, let alone look after livestock. They prefer the urban centres, even when they are unemployed,” he said.

Senior traditional councillor Erkan Ndume of the Weyulu Hedimbi district in the Omusati Region also welcomed the amnesty but said the period is too short and might not serve the intended purpose.

Nghululume Moses, a resident of Ongwediva who has a cattle post in the Uuvudhiya grazing area, also expressed concern about the timing of the amnesty.

“Offices are already closed for the festive season, and two weeks in January will definitely not be enough,” he said, before expressing anxiety about what might happen afterwards to illegal immigrants and their employers.

“Just imagine the chaos when a farmer and his cattle herders or domestic workers are arrested together. The government must give us more time to solve this issue,” Moses said.

Picture for illustrative purposes only. Photo: File

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