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The requirement that minors travelling into and out of Botswana produce an unabridged birth certificate is not a new requirement, Director of Immigration and Citizenship, Mabuse Pule told Tourism Update.
“It’s not a new thing, we’ve been practicing this for many years now, we are just making it more public and re-educating members of the public,” said Pule.
He said that previously minors travelling to Botswana who were unable to produce an unabridged birth certificate were denied entry into Botswana. He describes the unabridged birth certificate as being a document detailing the certificate number, name of the child, sex, date of birth, names of both parents, and country of birth for both the parents and the child.
Pule’s comments come after the government released a statement last month that the requirement would be implemented, effective from October 1, 2016.
However, Pule said the requirement has comes as a result of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Pule said that the convention states that every member state that has acceded to it or signed it should introduce some measures of control.
Asked how Botswana would implement the regulation, given that 28% of Batswana minors do not have documentation, Pule said that every two weeks officers from the Department of Civil Registration go to local gathering spots and register children whose parents were unable to register them at the time of their birth.
Sourse: tourismupdate.co.za
