South Africa’s Travel Industry, represented by the Association of Southern African Travel Agents (ASATA), has reacted with outrage following the announcement that the removal of the onerous requirement to present an Unabridged Birth Certificate (UBC) when travelling with minors will not be extended to South African citizens.
The Department of Home Affairs announced today that foreign minors visiting South Africa will no longer be required to present the UBC when travelling to the destination unless these are unaccompanied. South African citizens, however, will still be required to do so when travelling across borders. This, says ASATA CEO Otto de Vries, is blatant discrimination.
‘By limiting the change to foreign minors only, are we suggesting that South African children are more likely to be victims of child trafficking than their overseas counterparts?’
‘The requirement to produce an Unabridged Birth Certificate, unless the child’s passport includes the details of both parents of the child and both parents are travelling with the child, is discriminatory not only against South African families, but also against those that do not meet the form of a traditional two-parent household,’ says de Vries.
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