Africa-Press – Namibia. Rudolf Gaiseb
Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) parliamentarian Lilian Lutuhezi said parents sending children to the streets to beg for food and money are exposing them to kidnapping, sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
Speaking during a parliamentary session on Tuesday, she said times have changed as danger looms on the streets. She advised that parents must seek help from social workers and other existing institutions of social help.
Posing questions to Emma Kantema, Minister of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Lutuhezi added that these children belong in schools, not on the streets of towns and city.
“Immediate emergency measures must be activated,” she told the minister.
These children, of whom some are homeless and others vulnerable, sit at traffic lights, sometimes with their parents, begging.
This situation, she said, “sends a message to the world of a nation that does not take care of its most vulnerable.” At the same time, IPC parliamentarian Vilho Ihemba raised questions about the condition of stateless people in Namibia.
The Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security identified and registered over 141,084 people for documentation.Ihemba questioned the line minister, Lucia Iipumbu, about how far this process is. “What steps are being taken to ensure children of stateless individuals have access to education, given their parents’ undocumented status… Are there temporary exemptions to enrolling these children in schools?” he asked.
In his notice of questions for 2 October 2025, he said the main causes of migration of foreign nationals, especially Angolan citizens here, are conflict and instability.
“Attempts to get these people documented just before elections last year proved to be just another clever marketing pitch, only to discover that these applications are piled up in regional offices of home affairs without clear directives on the way forward,” he said
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