South Africa: More than 53,000 foreigners expelled in five weeks of migration campaign

The South African government announced on Sunday that 53,499 foreign nationals had been deported or repatriated since the launch of a large-scale migration control operation five weeks ago. The majority are from Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique.

This is one of the largest crackdowns carried out by Pretoria in years against undocumented migrants. The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mmamoloko Kubayi, presented the results of this campaign at a press conference in Pretoria on Sunday: 53,499 people have been "processed for deportation or repatriation," in her own words, and this number is expected to rise further.

The campaign was launched amid heightened social tensions. For several weeks, anti-immigration protests have been shaking the country, marked by violence, intimidation, and looting. Protesters accuse migrants of exacerbating unemployment, increasing crime, and weakening public services. They had set an unofficial deadline of June 30th for all undocumented immigrants to leave the country, prompting many foreigners to flee even before any intervention from the authorities.

Several countries have organised repatriation flights for their nationals in recent weeks, including Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya.

Minister Kubayi defended a balanced approach: “We strive to achieve orderly and regular migration, attentive to the concerns expressed by our population, while respecting the human rights and dignity of all people present on our territory, regardless of their nationality or migration status.” She specified that the expulsion process had also led to the arrest of individuals wanted by the police for alleged criminal acts.

Authorities intend to continue enforcing immigration laws, but Kubayi warned against unauthorized searches of homes and businesses suspected of harboring undocumented migrants. President Cyril Ramaphosa also condemned the attacks on migrants, urging citizens not to take the law into their own hands, while acknowledging public concerns about immigration.

The UN, for its part, has warned against the temptation to scapegoat migrants for the country's socio-economic difficulties. South Africa, the continent's largest economy, has long attracted workers seeking better living conditions, some of whom enter the country irregularly.