A South African family living in New Zealand had to settle for a remembrance service‚ after they were denied emergency visas to attend the funeral of a family member.
New visa regulations introduced by the Department of Home Affairs this year‚ prevented Kierane Apollos and his family from attending his mother's burial on March 18‚ after she died a week earlier.
His wife‚ Charlene Apollos‚ told Times Live how the family‚ who are originally from Durban‚ were left with the “heartbreaking reality” that they would not be able to travel to South Africa in time for the funeral‚ when they were told that there was “no way” they would be granted visas by March 17.
Apollos said she had explained the reason for their travel to the SA High Commission in New Zealand‚ and queried whether there were grounds for emergency consideration to their visa application‚ “given the circumstances of why we wanted to travel to South Africa”.
“We were informed [that] there are no criteria in place for an emergency consideration‚” she said. “This was a very distressing time for [our] family... we spent three days trying to obtain this visa [and] ended up with a mountain of paperwork that was worthless.”
This year Home Affairs changed the country's visa regulations to reciprocate New Zealand's visa regulations for South Africa. Reporting on the matter‚ New Zealand travel website‚ Stuff‚ said that the SA High Commissioner to that country‚ Zodwa Lallie‚ believed the government could do better to make allowances for emergency travel.
"Bilateral relations between countries are designed to enhance rather than impede‚" Lallie said. "Immigration officials need to consider people's circumstances in order to provide emergency services‚ consideration of emergencies is given as far as the client provides supporting documentation.” Apollos said that they had spoken to “many people” who were waiting up to a month and had still not received visas.
She said: “We are not disputing the decision to enforce the visa to travel to SA but find it a struggle to comprehend that it will take five to seven working days to obtain a visa in the case of an emergency. We cannot pre-empt death or any other emergency reasons to travel.” Home Affairs spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete could not be reached for comment.
- TMG Digital/The Times
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