Cabinet has approved the Revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection, setting out the government’s plan to reform South Africa’s citizenship, migration, and refugee frameworks.
The approval follows an extensive public consultation process across all nine provinces, which received thousands of submissions from stakeholders and members of the public.
The White Paper introduces measures to combat fraud, strengthen national security, improve service delivery through digital systems, and support economic development. Key reforms include changes to refugee management and citizenship application processes.
Under the “First Safe Country Principle,” asylum seekers will be ineligible for protection in South Africa if they have already been granted status in, or have passed through, a safe third country.
Citizenship reforms introduce objective criteria for naturalisation, a merit-based points system for economic pathways to citizenship, and an advisory panel to assess applications, with the aim of reducing backlogs.
“The approval of the Revised White Paper by Cabinet marks another important milestone in our journey to fundamentally reform South Africa’s civics and immigration systems. The policy direction outlined charts a new course for our country to build modern, efficient, and secure systems that serve South Africa’s interests,” said Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber.
“We will now work with the same focus and determination to translate the Revised White Paper into legislative amendments that consolidate and comprehensively reform our country’s citizenship, immigration, and refugee protection systems, ensuring they are fit for purpose for generations to come,” he added.
The Department of Home Affairs will now begin drafting the necessary legislation to implement the White Paper.
Photo: X/ @Leon_Schreib
