EU agrees to discuss Gigaba’s visa plan

SA and the EU have agreed to discuss the feasibility of granting multiple-entry visas and exemptions to frequent travellers between the two destinations, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Tuesday.

The EU made its submissions on the department’s green paper on international migration in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

Gigaba said the granting of such visas would benefit South African businesspeople, students and academics who frequently visited the continent.

The green paper recommends significant changes to SA’s approach to migration for both asylum seekers and economic migrants.

It proposes granting longterm visas to frequent African visitors, removing asylum seekers’ automatic right to work and possible green cards or work permit quotas.

This would help to fulfil the need for a “managed approach” to end a “laissez faire” approach to the issue, Gigaba said.

Public submissions for the green paper close on Friday, after which a white paper will be circulated early in 2017.

“We have taken a position that academics [and] businesspeople from the continent will be granted multiple long-term entry permits for either three, five or 10 years,” he said.

“We are asking that they be given reciprocity, they be given visa exemptions as we have done, and the same would apply to those ordinary South Africans who frequently visit as tourists some of those countries,” the minister said.

EU ambassador to SA Marcus Cornaro said he would take the proposals to the EU, but he hoped discussions would begin soon in order to register some progress for a summit in 2017.

“I am personally very optimistic that in a few weeks, we will have that high-level senior official dialogue on those points,” Cornaro said.