Uganda repatriates first group of nationals from South Africa amid xenophobic violence

Kampala, July 3 (IANS) A total of 273 Ugandan nationals arrived home early Friday from South Africa, becoming the first group to be repatriated amid ongoing xenophobic violence and anti-migrant protests.

The evacuees landed at Entebbe International Airport on a chartered flight from O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, Xinhua news agency reported.

The repatriation followed a directive by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to safeguard the safety and welfare of Ugandan citizens in response to the anti-migrant violence and xenophobic incidents in South Africa, according to Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to a statement issued by the Uganda Media Centre, a state-run communications agency, Ugandan Ambassador to South Africa Paul Amoru said that additional repatriation flights are being arranged.

The second flight was scheduled to depart on Friday morning with 35 evacuees, while a third flight carrying 114 Ugandan nationals was expected to depart later in the afternoon.

More than 35,000 individuals have been processed through voluntary repatriation and deportation operations at South Africa’s Beitbridge Border Post in Limpopo Province since the government intensified migration enforcement measures in early June, authorities said on Thursday.

Speaking during a media briefing at the border post, Acting Commissioner of the Border Management Authority David Chilembe said: “Since we started here on the seventh, when the president announced the measures that we have to put in place about migration issues, we have dealt with more than 35,000 people that we have repatriated and deported through this border post.”

The majority of those processed were Zimbabwean and Malawian nationals, Chilembe said, adding that on Wednesday alone, authorities handled about 2,400 people, including around 1,700 Malawians and 700 Zimbabweans.

The intensified repatriation drive follows months of growing public protests over illegal migration, which began in April and culminated in a nationwide demonstration on Tuesday, with thousands of migrants, particularly from Malawi, gathering at a temporary repatriation centre in Durban before the government relocated operations to a new facility in Limpopo’s Musina, near the Beitbridge border crossing with Zimbabwe.

–IANS

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