Maria David
Africa-Press – Namibia. Namibia has over 141 080 undocumented and stateless persons, according to Minister of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety, and Security, Albert Kawana.
Kawana made these remarks on Friday during the commemoration of International Identity Day and the launch of the online tourist Visa application.
This year, the day is commemorated under the theme “Ending statelessness for social progression.”
According to Kawana, this number represents the total number of people who consider themselves stateless or undocumented and came forward during a registration exercise conducted by the Ministry in conjunction with Local and Regional Authority structures.
He explained that the registration exercise was undertaken by the Ministry as part of the Social Progression Pillar of the Second Harambee Prosperity Plan, aimed at regularizing the status of stateless and undocumented persons in Namibia.
“Namibia, like many other countries in the world, is faced with the challenge of statelessness and undocumented persons,” he said.
He added that they recognize their obligation to reduce statelessness in the country by ensuring that those affected can exercise their right to identity, travel documents, and administrative assistance.
For this reason, Kawana said that the government is taking steps to reduce statelessness by regularizing the status of stateless and undocumented persons through enabling legislation.
Furthermore, he mentioned that the country is embracing technology and simplifying processes related to the production and use of identity documents. Apart from ensuring that all eligible Namibians are documented, he said the Namibian ID has evolved in line with the e-Governance Strategy for the public service of Namibia.
Moreover, Cabinet has recently approved the introduction of eIDs. Kawana said this will make it easier and faster for stakeholders to identify and authenticate the identity of their clients.
In addition, he indicated that the eID will also provide digital signatures to simplify transactions.
“This project is also aimed at meeting the requirements of the relevant part of the Electronic Transactions Act which deals with electronic signatures,” he added.
Kawana emphasized that national documents are a source of pride for any nation, and in the case of Namibia, they mirror the country’s bitter liberation history.
He called upon staff members of his Ministry to ensure that national documents are only issued to those who are entitled to have them.
Kawana stressed that they must adopt a zero tolerance policy toward those who corruptly issue such documents to people who do not deserve them.
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