WINDHOEK – Namibia’s Commissioner for Refugees Nkrumah Mushelenga has expressed concern about the growing trend of foreign immigrants resorting to marrying Namibians to avoid deportation.
Some immigrants who were granted refugee status have also resorted to this practice, Mushelenga said.
Namibia has close to 200 illegal immigrants who refuse to return to their countries of origin after their applications for refugee status were rejected.
Mushelenga said the number of illegal immigrants is increasingly worrisome and the majority are from the DRC, while others are from Burundi and Rwanda.
Many of them are living at the Osire refugee camp and elsewhere in the country.
“They are now using another delaying tactic. Some of the immigrants whose applications for residency were rejected are now marrying those refugees who have been approved, in order to benefit from a process called derivative status,” Mushelenga said.
“This process [derivative status] is when someone who was married in their country of origin became a refugee and later his or her spouse arrived then he or she is normally given the refugee status once there is proof that they are married.
“There is no need to reject the other partner in this case. So now these illegal immigrants are taking advantage of this situation by marrying other refugees who were approved to look like it’s a reunion,” he said.
“But the Namibia law does not allow you to remarry unless there is evidence that you are divorced,” Mushelenga noted.
He also said some of these illegal immigrants are marrying Namibians in order to get citizenship.
“It is our own fault because the system is loose. The law is supposed to start biting. These people are scattered all over towns; in Oshikango and Katima Mulilo.”
“If the law says you are an illegal immigrant then you are supposed to leave, then we are supposed to enforce the deportation laws to avoid mixing non-honest and honest immigrants.”
Further, he said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is blaming Namibia for not doing its job in controlling illegal immigrants who are also benefiting from humanitarian aid such as food rations given to the approved refugees at Osire.
Mushelenga urged the countries of origin’s ambassadors in Namibia – in particular the DRC – to speed up the process of verification of rejected cases so that they can facilitate the deportation of these people back to their countries of origin as provided for in Namibia’s immigration laws.
“These people are not willing to pack and leave for their countries of origin. We had several meetings with the DRC embassy on how to get these people to go back, but it seems there is a delay and we are not aware what is causing these delays.
“As I have said time and again, we are accountable to our laws as a country and officials. There will be a time when we will say enough is enough and enforce the laws accordingly.
“How do I explain to our government as to how we keep people who have been declared illegal immigrants in the country?”
More than 3 000 Angolan refugees in Namibia have been repatriated back to their country, after their classification of refugee status ended.
Currently there are more than 4 000 registered and approved refugees mostly women and children living at Osire, which has a school for grades 1 to 12 as well as a clinic.