Namibian Ministry of Home Affairs unprofessional and Xenophobic

HOME AFFAIRS HOSTILE TO FOREIGN DOCTORS

WRITTEN BY ROCHELLE NEIDEL ON 17 OCTOBER 2014.




SOME foreign doctors working in the country have expressed their frustration with the lengthy process of renewing their work permits describing the process as extremely cumbersome.

The doctors say this has led to many of them going to work in South Africa where authorities are more welcoming.

They complain that applications for renewal of work permits take up to nine months without anyone at the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration attending to them.

A doctor, who preferred to remain anonymous, said, “This is xenophobic and unfair. The reason why we came here was because there were no jobs for us in Zimbabwe and we came to seek a livelihood here.”

The doctor also said the two-year work permits that the ministry gave foreign doctors were very short.

Some of the doctors say they are trying to make a living because they have established their homes here and for them to re-apply every two years is a lengthy process, while sometimes they just don’t get the permits.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Home Affairs and Immigration Ambassador Patrick Nandago rubbished claims that the ministry was “acting xenophobic” and said the ministry addressed issues regarding permits weekly.

The ministry also came under fire recently when Secretary to Cabinet Frans Kapofi accused the ministry of being xenophobic in an article carried by daily newspaper, The Namibian.

Kapofi, who also chairs the board of directors of the SME Bank, was quoted in the local daily after the ministry allegedly refused to issue work permits to Zimbabwean nationals linked to the bank.

Asked whether these allegations had any substance, Nandago refused to comment saying “I can’t comment on what my senior has said”

He, however, said the renewal of work permits is dependent on the institution that the applicants work for and the recommendations received from these relevant institutions.

Namibia has a serious skills shortage in many highly specialised fields, and employers question why the ministry denies skilled foreign nationals work permits when the country has a shortage of qualified personnel in sectors like health.

Nandago denied that the ministry showed hostility towards foreign doctors who take up employment in Namibia.

“There is no justification for us to deny permits to skilled foreigners while there is a shortage in the country,” he said.

 The Deputy Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration Elia Kaiyamo complained that quite often, foreign doctors did not honour the conditions of their work permits.

He said Government contracted foreign doctors to work in State health facilities, but they would leave to set up private practices, and that made the ministry reluctant to renew their work permits in some cases.

 “We need doctors in our country, but sometimes they are not honest. They just want to come and make money in our country, but they do not follow the correct rules and procedures.

“They need to go through the registration process and be registered under the Medical Board, but they just want to come and marry our ladies to get work permits,” he fumed.


Non-Namibian doctors have also accused the Health Professions Council of deliberately failing them the test that they have to take to qualify for registration as doctors in Namibia.

However, the Registrar of the council Cornelius Weyulu said most foreign doctors that go through the oral test offered at the council pass, and only those who were unprepared would fail the test.

“Evaluation is done on major domains namely general medicine, general surgery, mental health, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, anaesthesiology, family medicine and orthopaedic/orthopaedic Trauma.

“Reasons for failing vary from the candidates not having prepared well for the evaluation to lack of knowledge, skills and competency in one or more domains,” Weyulu said

Due to the lack of medical experts in the country, Government has had to rely heavily on doctors from other African countries.

The lack of qualified medical personnel has resulted in a situation where doctors and nurses find themselves overburdened, and the situation appears to have worsened rather than improved.

At the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Health and Social Services announced plans to bring in doctors from countries such and Ethiopia , Zambia, Senegal Kenya and South Africa to address the shortage of medical doctors in the country.