MORE than 1,500 Zimbabweans were repatriated through Beitbridge Border Post over a two-week period as demand for emergency travel documents increased in South Africa amid growing anti-immigrant sentiment.
South Africa’s Border Management Authority (BMA) said 1,521 Zimbabwean nationals returned home aboard 26 buses between June 12 and June 24.
During the same period, the authority also facilitated the repatriation of 6,709 Malawian nationals using 112 buses.
The increase in repatriations has placed pressure on Zimbabwe’s Consulate in Cape Town, where long queues have formed for emergency travel documents.
Humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers said requests for assistance had nearly tripled in recent weeks, rising from about 1,000 to almost 3,000 people.
Its representative, Ali Sablay, said many Zimbabweans were seeking travel documents and temporary accommodation while waiting to return home.
Some have been accommodated at the Department of Home Affairs Repatriation Centre in Epping as officials process their documentation, Sablay said.
The rise in repatriations comes amid growing anti-immigrant tensions in South Africa ahead of planned demonstrations on June 30.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged citizens not to take immigration enforcement into their own hands, saying only the State has the authority to verify people’s identity documents or nationality.
“South Africa has no place for xenophobia, Afrophobia, sexism or any other form of intolerance,” Ramaphosa said.
