Hertta-Maria Amutenja
The Namibian Government estimates that there are at least 141 048 stateless and undocumented people residing in Namibia.
This was revealed by the Minster of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety, and Security, Albert Kawana this week during the tenth Cabinet decisions announcement, where the executive body approved four bills for the regularization of the status of stateless and undocumented people in Namibia.
Currently, the country does not have a law that deals with stateless individuals.The Namibian citizenship amendment bill, regularization of the status of certain residents of Namibia and their descendants’ bill, and statelessness determination and protection bill have all been referred to the Cabinet Committee on Legislation (CCL) for further scrutiny and resubmission to the deliberative cabinet before tabling in the Nation Assembly.
A stateless person is someone who is not considered a national of any state.
Namibia has commenced a project as part of the country’s development plan, the Harambee Prosperity Plan II, to regularize the status of stateless and undocumented persons.
Namibia commenced with the registration of undocumented persons and or potentially stateless people and the number is currently being validated.
Last year During the 73rd Session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Program, the Executive Director at the Ministry, Ettiene Maritz said a new law will be enacted to regularize the status of the affected group of people.
“Namibia decided to tackle both undocumented and statelessness once considering that the two are closely related. It is pertinent to indicate that there is political will in Namibia to address the issue of statelessness. Therefore, efforts towards addressing statelessness in Namibia are receiving meticulous attention by the executive branch of the country,” he said.
