After spending over R292 million repatriating and deporting illegal migrants, south africa’s Home Affairs demands reimbursement from migrants’ countries of origin
After spending over R292 million repatriating and deporting illegal migrants, south africa’s Home Affairs demands reimbursement from migrants’ countries of origin.
Over 82 000 illegal migrants have been repatriated and some deported from South africa since june 2026 to date. Thousands of Malawians, Nigerians, Ethiopians and Ghanaians were amongst the most that needed to be processed while most of Zimbabweans and Mozambicans just walked out through the fence, the same way they came.
South Africa has been a safe haven for illegal migrants for many years, one country with somehow legalized lawlessness. A place where illegal persons can live, work and even go to school and get Healthcare for free funded by the government. This has attracted illegal migrants from allover the world. However, now that south Africans want the lawlessness to end, the cost to clean up is much much higher than expected.
After the fog of the June Anti-illegal migration marches by South africans accross the country and the deportations and repatriations that followed, homeaffairs is counting the cost and the price is too high for homeaffairs to swallow alone. R292 million bill is all that the department of home affairs is left with after all, but the department says this is not their bill to pay.
Homeaffairs director-general, Tommy Makhode, told parliament portfolio committee on homeaffairs on Tuesday that Home Affairs has written to several African countries in order to recoup some of the costs. Makhode told the portfolio committee that they have written to the country of Malawi and have also written to embassies of Nigeria and Ethiopia through the south african department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), to advice them to pay the cost of returning their citizens home.
You’d think deporting just 82 000 illegal migrants would not be much of a financial hazard, but it has cost the country close to 300 million. Someone once said, ‘ clean your room every day because if you don’t, it will be harder to clean in the future’. Well, now it makes sense in this formula.
The department of homeaffairs has every right to demand reimbursement from countries like Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana and ethiopia because it is those countries that should be responsible for their citizens. Those countries have embassies in south Africa and they know very well which of their citizens have overstayed their visas in south Africa. They should have been the first to alert the south african police of their wanted citizens and repatriate them as soon as they are found.
It will be very difficult for homeaffairs to get their money back from those african countrues, but it is something worth pursuing because governments have to take responsibility for their citizens wherever they are in the world.