The visa backlog: Prioritizing quantity vs quality does not restore dignity
[Below an extract – the full opinion can be found as published on the Daily Maverick here]
Rejection patterns
As we fast approach the end of 2024, and as widely publicized by the Minister and the Department, the progress on the backlog seems to be making giant leaps. Reportedly the DHA has succeeded in zeroing a backlog of 247,500 ID applications in a few months, and has proudly reduced the visa backlog of 62% whilst confirming to be on track with the year-end goal.
That visa outcomes are suddenly been flushed out in high numbers, is evident simply by visiting any VFS Global office , where the wait time for a simple collection has dramatically increased to 3-4 hours or even longer. These volumes have undoubtedly put a strain on VFS Global’s capacity and staff, and of course on applicants.
Of graver concern, however, is the combined negative impact that lies in the poor quality of decisions being rendered lately. In the past couple of weeks, this law firm has been inundated by enquiries from the public relating to the collection of unprecedented numbers of rejections on visa applications, many of which bear anomalous and erroneous reasons for the refusals.
Quality vs Quantity
Issues with the quality of decisions are not a novelty of Schreiber’s DHA or the backlog clearing process. The denounced lack of proper legal training combined with the necessary delegation of adjudicating functions within the DHA carries this consequence. Much of the same has been said in respect of the decisions rendered overseas on visa applications processed and adjudicated by DIRCO at certain overseas South African missions.
Applicants have already been gravely prejudiced by the DHA’s inability to perform after the lockdown, often finding themselves displaced, disillusioned and despondent in a state of continued uncertainty. Most applicants have had no choice but to exercise patience, others have approached the judicial simply to review and set aside the unreasonable delay experienced. Litigation against the DHA has never been so frequent as over the past couple of years and at a hefty cost for both the applicants and the South African tax payers.
Schreiber has centred his role as Minister in pursuit of the restoration of dignity. However, signing off irrational and erroneous rejection notices serves no such purpose and only allows to numerically account for progress on the backlog as an achievement. Looming ahead will be another backlog, predominantly consisting of appeals, which will defeat any progress made by 2024.
Bearing the brunt remain the applicants, trapped in a timeless state of uncertainty and deprivation, having entered South Africa as if in Dante’s Inferno: “Abandon every hope, all ye who enter here”.
Read on the DM the full opinion.
by Claudia Pizzocri | CEO at Eisenberg & Associates Inc.