South Africa February 2006 |
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| Home Affairs beefs up capacity at major airports, (Bua News, 2006-02-26):-In a bid to ease congestion at the country’s international airports, the Department of Home Affairs has deployed about 40 immigration officers to the Johannesburg and Cape Town airports. Announcing the move today, Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said the officials would address delays at these ports of entry. At least 30 of these officers would be stationed at the Johannesburg International Airport (JIA), which is considered to be the busiest in the country. The JIA currently has about 58 immigration officers, according to minister Mapisa-Nqakula. The new recruits went through a year-long training which covered aspects of immigration law enforcement, among others. Their deployment is a major step towards ensuring speedy facilitation of entry and exit at the two airports. “There should be no long queues at these airports and if there are any, it should not be attributed to the shortage of immigration officers,” Ms Mapisa-Nqakula said. She said the department sought to increase the number of officials available at the counters during shifts especially at the JIA. Up to 14 staffers are expected to work per shift (day and night) at the departure section. Ms Mapisa-Nqakula said this number was reduced to an average of 10 officials per shift outside peak hours. “Through this deployment, we shall be able to take this [number] to 23, which is the total number of counters available for immigration officers to do their work at any given time,” she said. At least a maximum of 18 officials are currently stationed at the airport’s arrivals section. Ms Mapisa-Nqakula said the number would be increased to 42 in the short term while aiming to fill all 58 available counters soon. In line with the new shift system, peak hours would no longer be fixed in terms of times but rather based on weekly projections of scheduled flights provided by the Airports Company of South Africa. In addition, overnight duty officials of 10 people would be complemented to 14. “This will ensure that any flight that arrives outside the normal peak hours with a high volume of passengers can also be cleared at immigration without inconvenience to the passengers,” said minister Mapisa-Nqakula. She also expressed her gratitude to the Board of Airline Representatives for offering to train immigration officers in customer relations. Jean Crawford from the Board of Airline Representatives urged the new recruits to embrace the department’s slogan of “caring and compassionate rendering of services”. The Board of Airline Representatives, she said, offered training to immigration officers in customer relations to create positive spin-offs to the country’s tourism industry. | |
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp |