JOHANNESBURG 5 Dec (ANA) - South Africa's Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi said on Tuesday he welcomed the adoption of the Border Management Authority Bill by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).

 

Motsoaledi said the bill would give South Africa impetus to tackle the issue of porous borders which enabled the illegal crossing of illicit goods, drugs, trafficking of people and stolen vehicles.

 

"The department must now increase its efforts to prepare for the establishment of the Border Management Authority," the home minister was quoted by local media as saying on Wednesday.

 

He said the implementation protocols with border law-enforcement agencies for the mandatory co-ordination of their respective functions within the border law-enforcement area and at ports of entry must be finalized within six months of the bill being signed into an Act.

 

The bill has been referred to the National Assembly which will look into it before submitting it to the country's President Cyril Ramaphosa.

 

Motsoaledi said that his department has been preparing for the implementation of the bill, which would cause an increase in the number of law-enforcement agencies deployed at South Africa's borders.

 

In a period between April last year and August, 40 million rand (2.7 million U.S. dollars) was spent in deporting undocumented migrants from South Africa.

 

In October, the Department of Home Affairs said a total of 10,000 undocumented migrants were deported to their original countries from South Africa this year alone. In 2018, some 20,000 undocumented migrants were deported by the department.(ANA)

FA/ANA/5 December 2019------