South Africa plans to charge countries for deportation of nationals

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) says South Africa plans to begin charging countries for the deportation of their nationals who violate the country’s immigration laws.

The proposal comes amid ongoing protests targeting undocumented foreign nationals, which have also prompted some countries to evacuate their citizens from South Africa.

According to official figures, South Africa has deported more than 100,000 undocumented migrants over the past two years, with the exercise costing the state millions of rand.

DIRCO spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said the recent repatriations demonstrate that countries are capable of taking responsibility for their own citizens.

“Moving forward, we will also be billing countries for their foreign nationals who have to be deported or who are in our criminal detention facilities and have to be deported back into their countries. At least now we can see that there’s capacity for countries to extract the foreign nationals who have fallen foul of the law. That’s something that through the department of home affairs we will pursue as a government,” Phiri said.

The government says the new approach is aimed at reducing the financial burden of deportations on the South African state while encouraging greater cooperation from countries of origin in managing undocumented migration.

By: SABC News