Ghana Begins Emergency Repatriation of Citizens from South Africa Amid Rising Xenophobic Violence

JOHANNESBURG — Approximately 300 Ghanaian nationals queued at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport on Wednesday morning, boarding the first flights home after weeks of anti-immigrant protests across South Africa intensified into outright violence against foreign nationals — a wave of attacks that has killed at least a dozen people and left hundreds more injured since mid-April.

Ghana’s government, working through its high commission in Pretoria, confirmed the departures as part of an emergency voluntary repatriation programme. A list of around 800 Ghanaians who requested evacuation has been compiled in coordination with South African immigration authorities, though South African officials said initial checks suggested most of those seeking to leave were undocumented.

“What we found is that of the 300, only 10 of them are legal in the country, so quite a number of them are in noncompliance with our immigration act,” a South African immigration official told local television station eNCA.

Protests erupted across several South African cities in recent weeks, with campaigners demanding tighter controls on undocumented migrants and blaming foreigners — particularly those from other sub-Saharan African countries — for persistent unemployment and rising crime rates. South Africa’s unemployment rate has remained above 30 percent, a figure that disproportionately affects the black population and has long been a fault line in the country’s politics.

The demonstrations, organised initially under the banner of an anti-immigration movement, quickly escalated into attacks on migrant-owned businesses and residential areas. At least 12 people have been killed in violence linked to the protests, according to local hospital records and wire service tallies. Migrant rights groups say the attacks show disturbingly familiar patterns to the 2008 and 2015 xenophobic waves that claimed dozens of lives and sent thousands of foreign nationals fleeing.

Ghana’s high commissioner to South Africa, Benjamin Quashie, sought to frame the evacuations as a measured diplomatic response rather than a sign of rifts between the two nations. “The demonstrators have said they want us to work together,” Quashie said. “We must ensure that those who are undocumented are returned home and that institutions are allowed to function.” He dismissed speculation of a formal diplomatic breach.

Despite those assurances, the scale of the outflow has drawn sharp criticism from rights organisations. The African Union’s special rapporteur on the rights of migrants issued a statement urging South Africa to “uphold its constitutional obligations to all persons on its territory regardless of nationality.” Amnesty International said the attacks bore “the hallmarks of a Co Contents government that has systematically failed to protect vulnerable communities.”

Tensions appear to have been further inflamed by anti-immigration rhetoric from political figures in the lead-up to local elections scheduled for October. At least two mayoral candidates in Johannesburg and Durban have publicly endorsed calls for the immediate deportation of all undocumented migrants, a position analysts say is designed to appeal to voters frustrated by economic stagnation and broken public services.

Families boarding the repatriation flights described an atmosphere of fear that had become untenable. “I’m happy that I’m going to my country,” one Ghanaian man told Reuters at OR Tambo, declining to give his name. “It is not easy to be in someone else’s country and be disturbed all the time.” Women and children were among those on the departing aircraft, according to Ghanaian consular officials.

South African authorities have condemned the violence but enforcement has been uneven. Police have made arrests in several incidents but has not declared major incidents related to the protests as hate crimes, a classification that would carry significantly harsher sentences. The government of President Cyril Ramaphosa has struggled to contain the political fallout while managing the broader economic crisis that has left millions of South Africans without formal employment.

The repatriation flights are expected to continue through the end of the week, with Ghanaian Airways operating three additional Boeing 737 services from OR Tambo to Kotoka International Airport in Accra. The Ghanaian foreign ministry said a second group of approximately 200 citizens had been identified and would depart on Thursday.