LHR comments on Immigration Amendment Bill, 2011
The Immigration Amendment Bill has been introduced to streamline the procedures of the Department of Home Affairs. The Bill seeks to encourage legal immigration by inter alia rationalising the permitting system, revising the requirements for a business visa and introducing a new critical skills category.
The objects of the Bill include the amendment of the Immigration Act, 2002 (Act No. 13 of 2002) (‘‘the Act’’), to provide for the designation of ports of entry, to revise the provisions relating to the Immigration Advisory Board, to revise provisions relating to the making of regulations, to revise provisions relating to visas for temporary sojourn in the Republic, to provide for the mandatory transmission and use of information on advance passenger processing, to provide for the transmission of passenger name record information, to revise provisions relating to permanent residence, to revise penal provisions and to correct certain important technical aspects in the text of the Act.
LHR would like to bring particular attention to the affect these amendments will have on the human rights of individuals entering the country. In making our comments we will specifically focus on the amendment to Section 23(1) and the introduction of the Advance Passenger Processing (APP) system under Section 35 of the Immigration Amendment Bill.
