The Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security Deputy Minister is urging parents to ensure their children are issued birth certificates immediately after birth.

Dr Daniel Kashikola made the call during an outreach programme to issue birth certificates in the Ohangwena Region's remote rural areas.

Kashikola says undocumented children are a situation created by parents who do not have birth certificates issued for their children, depriving these children of their rights.

The team of officials from civil registration issued 24 birth certificates to children at Olupale Village; 30 at Oushini Village; and 23 at Omboloka Village.

But about 40 children at Omboloka were not serviced due to limited time.

Birth certificates were issued to children under five years of age only. However, it was discovered that the majority of those without birth certificates are children over five, most of them from the San community.

Others who were eligible to acquire birth certificates or identification documents (IDs) were informed to go to Eenhana or Okongo.

The community was also informed that if a child is born outside Namibia and one of the parents is a Namibian citizen, the child qualifies for Namibian citizenship.

Mothers who cannot trace the fathers of their children were urged to register their children in their surnames as they are free to change these details later, should they get hold of the child's father.

People born in Angola but who lived in Namibia from the 1930s up to 1977 who are willing to acquire Namibian citizenship by nationalisation should also visit the home affairs ministry to have this done.