•Nigerian returnees
Screening of Nigerians who desire to leave South Africa following xenophobic attacks has commenced.
This comes a month after the Nigerian Government announced the special repatriation plan, reports The Guardian.
A public notice issued by the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria notes that the exercise will run until Sunday at the mission’s premises, and, according to a source, about 400 Nigerians are involved in the first batch of the screening.
For Nigerians with immigration-related offences, the Nigerian mission in South Africa says such persons would not be arrested, as waivers have been granted by the host authorities.
Last Wednesday, Ghana commenced evacuation flights for its nationals from South Africa, where activists have given a June 30, 2026, deadline to undocumented or illegal foreigners to leave the country.
An exodus of foreigners is underway as governments help their citizens to flee xenophobic attacks in South Africa, ahead of an ominous 30 June deadline.
Nigeria is planning to fly between 2,000 and 4,000 of its people home. Mozambique has already bused out 545 nationals and is ready to evacuate more.
Meanwhile, Hundreds of foreigners fearing for their lives have taken shelter in community halls on South Africa’s south coast, saying mobs of locals were going door-to-door telling them to leave the country.
Many, mostly nationals of Malawi and Mozambique, told journalists they had fled their homes at the weekend and spent nights in the mountains and bush, before making their way to the small-town community centres.
Weeks of mostly small protests across South Africa against irregular foreign nationals exploded into violence at the weekend in the town of Mossel Bay, 250 kilometres up the coast, where 55 shacks were torched.
The South African police said two people from Mozambique were killed “during activities associated with anti-foreigner demonstrations”.
The deaths are the first linked to a new wave of anti-migrant protests by fringe groups that accuse undocumented foreign nationals of crime and taking scarce jobs and resources away from locals.
After one anti-illegal migrant group set a June 30 deadline for undocumented migrants to go home, small bands of people brandishing whips, sticks, wooden clubs and sometimes axes are reported to have taken to the streets in various places to reinforce the ultimatum.
Meanwhile, the South African police have warned anti-immigration groups on Wednesday against taking the law into their own hands.
Lieutenant-General Tebello Mosikili said security forces would not allow any group to “take the law into its own hands, conduct unlawful operations, and intimidate communities, target individuals based on their nationality.
