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Almost 250 000 undocumented in Namibia


CURRENTLY about 250 000 Namibians do not possess national documents, says the Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security.

This represents 10% of the national population.

A 2016 Namibia Intercensal Demographic Survey (Nids) report already indicated that 13% of the population were not in possession of birth certificates at the time the report was drafted.

The report also indicated that 1,5% of the population had non-Namibian birth certificates.

A portion of the latter group, although documented, could be stateless.

“We have a lot of undocumented people in the country. About 8% to 10% of the population are currently undocumented,” ministry spokesperson Margaret Kalo said at a press conference yesterday.

She said these figures mostly involve people in rural areas due to limited access to services.

“We want to reach our target audience, most importantly the rural community. We know it is hard sometimes to reach them,” she said.

They are working through councillors and governors to reach these people, Kalo said.

The ministry earlier this year called on new mothers to ensure their children are registered before leaving the hospital.

“If you register them while they’re young, we may end up not having a lot of people who are undocumented,” she said.

Kalo said the ministry’s outreach programme targets undocumented Namibians in the country’s rural areas in all regions.

This comes after Ohangwena governor Walde Ndevashiya bemoaned the number of undocumented residents in his region.

During his recent state of the region address, he said dozens of children still require national documents. The lack of identity and national documents was highlighted as a major huddle to inclusivity in the school system.

During the 2020/21 financial year, the ministry registered 96 139 births and issued 105 691 ID cards, while 1 582 South West African identity documents were converted to Namibian ID cards.

Some 17 353 deaths were registered.

Also speaking at yesterday’s conference, Windhoek Rural constituency councillor Piet Adams said residents of his constituency, including Groot Aub, have been struggling to obtain national documents.

“Home affairs doesn’t reach out to the furthest points,” he said.

The government, along with the Accelerator Lab of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), set up a pilot project to apply for services such as the issuing of birth certificates and other national documents.

The project is set up through the already established rural community Information and Communication Technology (ICT) centre at Groot Aub.

This project, called ‘The Living Lab’, assists the government to adopt digital technologies through integration.

Adams says the project, which took a year to set up, will deal with the undocumented residents in the area.

The government, through the Harambee Prosperity Plan II, wants to regularise the status of specified categories of undocumented and stateless people.

According to this plan, it wants to draft a bill and submit it to the Cabinet committee on legislation.

This bill should be set to be tabled and promulgated by parliament by 17 February 2023.





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