The Commissioner of the Border Management Authority (BMA), Dr Michael Masiapato, has confirmed that the BMA successfully processed 663 Ghanaian nationals for repatriation from South Africa to Ghana through OR Tambo International Airport over the weekend.
On Saturday, 332 Ghanaian nationals were taken to OR Tambo International Airport by the Ghanaian High Commission in Pretoria for repatriation. Following an extensive check-in process, the travellers proceeded to BMA Immigration for verification and clearance.
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Of the travellers processed, 170 were travelling on Ghanaian ordinary passports, while 162 were using emergency travel certificates.
During immigration processing, 321 travellers were found to have overstayed their stay in South Africa by 30 days or longer. Consequently, they were declared undesirable in terms of section 30 of the Immigration Act, read together with regulation 27(3)(c) of the Immigration Regulations.
At the conclusion of the immigration process, 323 passengers were found eligible to depart and subsequently boarded a chartered flight arranged by the Ghanaian government.
However, nine passengers were offloaded from the flight. These included two couples and their five children. The wife of one couple and the husband of the other were declared medically unfit to travel by airline personnel. Airport paramedics were called in to assist and subsequently transferred the two travellers to the airport clinic for further medical attention.
More Ghanaians leave SA
On Sunday, another group of 331 Ghanaians were taken to the same airport by the Ghanaian High Commission for repatriation.
Among those processed, 117 travellers were using Ghanaian ordinary passports, while 90 were travelling on emergency travel certificates. In addition, 37 minor children born in South Africa were also processed using emergency travel certificates.
BMA immigration officials further processed 25 asylum seekers who voluntarily submitted withdrawal letters to cancel their asylum applications. During the verification process, 170 travellers were found to have overstayed their stay in South Africa by 30 days or more.
At the end of the process, 341 passengers, including 10 deportees brought by the Department of Home Affairs from the Lindela Holding Facility, were cleared for departure. One traveller did not check in. The remaining 340 boarded a chartered flight arranged by their government.
Repatriation process
Last month, the Ghanaian government announced it would repatriate its citizens from South Africa after anti-immigrant protests flared up again in the country.
Organisations including March and March and Operation Dudula have taken to the streets demanding the deportation of undocumented foreign nationals in the country. The organisations have given undocumented foreign nationals a deadline of 30 June to leave the country, failing which they have threatened a national shutdown.
In response, the Ghanaian government decided to help its citizens leave the country. Ghana’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Benjamin Anani Quashie, said there were close to 16 000 Ghanaians in South Africa.
The first group left on Wednesday, 27 May, after delays due to verification processes. Immigration checks revealed that of the 300 Ghanaians on the first list, only 10 were legally in the country. The rest of them are all illegal, without documents or actually not complying and have been overstaying.
‘We will push back’
On Saturday, 6 June, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, hit back at the Ghanaian government’s claims that its citizens had been staying in South Africa legally and that it would take action against the South African government.
“Let there be no misunderstanding: we will vigorously defend any frivolous or baseless lawsuit emanating from Ghana against South Africa,” said Lamola in a statement.
He said South Africa’s initial hope was to help the Ghanaian government repatriate its citizens in a “humane” and “cordial” manner; however, that diplomacy was not being reciprocated.
“We will not continue to tolerate these public spectacles, characterised by incomplete information and outright misinformation, devoid of any diplomatic decorum.
“We are, and will remain, open to discussing the push and pull factors relating to migration at a bilateral level, the African Union or any multilateral forum, but let us be factual in our engagements and not pander to unnecessary public spectacles that are devoid of any diplomatic decorum.
“Having been on both ends of violence and hostility directed at migrants, Ghana has invaluable lessons to impart. We are ready to learn from your wealth of experience in this regard, including how Ghana has managed social tension while protecting, exclusively for Ghanaians, the very sectors in which Ghanaians in South Africa thrive.”