ID necessary when travelling with children

Altercation at Eros airport
Frank Steffen
A complaint has been circulating on social media in recent days by a father criticising the behaviour of immigration officers and the police, respectively, who are said to have harassed his wife and children on their departure from Windhoek's Eros Airport to Rundu to visit him there.
He said that on 25 March, after checking in, the police / immigration official asked to see their children's birth certificates. “These were produced digitally. This was not enough, she wanted them printed. This was done. Then she demanded that they be certified. This was impossible without missing the flight,” he said.
He added that the official allegedly “smacked the phone out of my wife’s hand” and forced her to delete the photo that his wife had taken of the official.
He said that his wife and children were traumatized by the officer’s actions. The officer concerned was dressed in civilian clothes and refused to identify herself. Neither the officer nor her supervisor were willing to talk to the couple’s lawyer telephonically, insisting on certified printed copies.
He said that thanks to the assistance of Fly Namibia, the situation was resolved. An airline employee told our sister publication, the Allgemeine Zeitung, that the confrontation on both sides had escalated unnecessarily.
Immigration officials and police officials admitted at the scene that the officer concerned should at least have had identification. “However, the public must also accept that we have rules. A photo is of no use to us, even if it is printed out, there are too many scams for that. And if children are abducted tomorrow, then we will be held responsible.”
When traveling, the original birth certificate of a child or a certified copy that is not older than six months must always be presented. This also applies to domestic travel and theoretically even applies to travellers in a car or bus.
Immigration officials and police officers are generally willing to help, but travellers have to be at the airport early. – [email protected]