South Africa has repatriated 2,745 foreigners in the week after President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed tougher action against illegal immigration, the country’s home affairs minister said on Sunday.
One of Africa’s largest economies, South Africa has long attracted migrant workers from across the continent, both legally and illegally.
But saddled with an unemployment rate above 30%, it has experienced recurring spurts of anti-immigrant unrest.
South Africans have marched through parts of the country ordering foreigners with no residency papers to leave by June 30.
Prompted foreigners to leave
The protests have prompted citizens of Nigeria, Malawi, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to accept voluntary repatriation organised by their governments.
“As of last night, the number we can report is 2,745 repatriations that have come in this period since the president spoke,” Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber told reporters.
“It is a moving target,” he said. The government said most of those repatriated were in the country illegally.
They include Malawian nationals, about 7,000 of whom have been sheltering in an open field in the eastern port city of Durban, according to an inter-ministerial migration committee set up after the president’s address.
Malawians leave South Africa
Eight buses commissioned by the Malawian government began moving its citizens on Sunday, with South Africa providing 10 additional buses to speed up deportations, the committee said.
Some 560 people, including about 200 children, took the journey on Sunday, Malawi Consul General Max Biwi said.
Among those boarding the first buses, some carried babies on their backs and small bags of belongings.
The government said on Sunday it did not operate refugee camps and had no intention of establishing them, even on a temporary basis.
Public concerns
Last week, Ramaphosa acknowledged public concerns over illegal immigration but warned that the authorities would not tolerate anyone taking the law into their own hands.
There are more than three million foreigners living in South Africa, or 5.1% of the population, according to the statistics agency.
