Parliament Passes Bill to Ensure Fairer Treatment of Illegal Foreign Nationals
**CAPE TOWN** – The National Assembly has passed the **Immigration Amendment Bill**, a significant legislative change that comes eight years after the first of two Constitutional Court rulings regarding the detention of illegal foreign nationals. This bill aims to bring fairer treatment, especially for women and children, during the process of arrest and detention.
The new bill introduces stricter rules for how long a person can be held in custody under the **Immigration Act**. It requires that anyone detained under the Act must appear before a court within 48 hours and cannot be held for more than 30 days. This change is a direct response to a Constitutional Court order that gave Parliament a 24-month deadline, which expired in 2019, to fix the Immigration Act following judgments in favour of Lawyers for Human Rights.
According to Home Affairs Minister **Leon Schreiber**, the bill will be followed by a set of new regulations aimed at making deportations swifter and more efficient. He stated that the new standards in the bill will provide greater predictability to the deportation process. "In addition to upholding the rights of the detained, the introduction of this heightened level of objectivity makes it much harder for any immigration officer to arbitrarily release detainees before they are deported," Schreiber said.
He believes the new law will also help to reduce endless legal challenges to deportations. "In time, this will make for a stronger immigration enforcement system, that reduces legal claims against the department while enhancing our ability to carry out legally compliant deportations more effectively," the minister added.
Schreiber also noted that this bill will be followed by a draft **White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection** for public comment.
The legislative process, however, was not without criticism. The **MK Party** slammed Schreiber for only dealing with immigration matters because he was forced to by a court. **MP Mariam Muhammad** said that many of the problems were due to the inefficiencies of the Home Affairs department itself.
**ActionSA** also rejected the bill, calling for an urgent review of the White Paper on Migration. Despite the opposition, the Immigration Amendment Bill has been passed and sent to the **National Council of Provinces** for concurrence.
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