2,745 foreigners sent home in a week, South Africa says

AFP | Johannesburg

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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 yesterday.

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 bursts of anti-immigrant unrest, including fresh violence in recent weeks.

Mobs of South Africans carrying sticks, whips and shields have marched through parts of the country ordering foreigners with no residency papers to leave by June 30.

Growing security fears after businesses were looted and foreigners targeted have prompted citizens of Nigeria, Malawi, Congo, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to accept voluntary repatriation organized by their governments.

“As of last night, the number we can count is 2,745 repatriations that have come in this period since the president spoke,” Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber told reporters.

“It’s a moving target,” he said, speed up repatriations, the commissioner said.

Among those boarding the first buses, some carried babies on their backs and small bags of belongings.

“The violence we are finally leaving. It’s better than living in fear here,” said Fortunate Chinedu from Blantyre, Malawi’s commercial capital.

The 29-year-old had lived in South Africa for three years, she told AFP, adding that the anti-foreigner sentiment had been the worst since she arrived.

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 protests.

Eight buses commissioned by the Malawian government began moving its citizens on Sunday, with South Africa providing 10 additional buses to speed up repatriations, the commissioner said.