South Africa repatriates 2,745 foreigners in week after crackdown on migrants

South Africa repatriated 2,745 foreigners in a single week after Cyril Ramaphosa vowed tougher action against illegal immigration, a rapid show of state force that followed looting and threats against foreigners in several parts of the country. Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said the figure was still shifting. “As of last night, the number we can report is 2,745 repatriations,” he said. “It is a moving target.”

The returns were coordinated through voluntary-return arrangements with foreign missions, and the total included people from Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. One breakdown put the number at 958 Ghanaians, 640 Malawians, 583 Mozambicans, 296 Zimbabweans and 268 Nigerians, a mix that highlights how South Africa’s migration tensions reach far beyond its borders and into the wider region. Officials said some people were leaving because they were in the country illegally, while others chose to go home because they no longer felt safe.

Durban became the most visible pressure point. An inter-ministerial committee on migration said about 7,000 Malawian nationals were sheltering in an open field there, while other counts at different stages put the number above 3,000 and then above 5,000, showing how quickly the crisis was changing. To move people home faster, the Malawian government sent eight buses and South Africa added ten more. In the Western Cape, 150 Malawian nationals left on June 6 in the first buses of a separate coordinated exercise.

Images from the departures captured the human cost of the crackdown: families boarding buses with babies strapped to their backs and carrying little more than small bags. One Malawian woman told AFP she was relieved to leave because living in fear had become too much. Anti-immigrant groups had set a June 30 deadline for undocumented migrants to leave South Africa, and mobs carrying sticks, whips and shields were reported marching through parts of the country warning foreigners without residency papers to go.

The political logic is clear. South Africa remains one of Africa’s largest economies and a magnet for workers from across the continent, but unemployment is above 30% and anger over jobs, crime and services has repeatedly fed anti-immigrant unrest. An April 2026 report said the Department of Home Affairs had deported more than 109,000 undocumented immigrants over the previous two years, suggesting this week’s surge was not an isolated burst but part of a longer tightening of enforcement. The harder question is whether rapid removals can satisfy domestic pressure without addressing the economic strain that keeps turning migration into a flashpoint.