SA spent R52m in five months to send over 19 000 illegal immigrants home

South Africa has spent more than R52 million in just five months to send over 19,000 illegal immigrants ‘back home’ to their countries.

The details were shared by Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber in a written parliamentary reply to a question from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP Thapelo Mogale.

Mogale said the money spent on sending the illegal immigrants home could have been better used to strengthen border management and prevent unauthorised entries of foreigners into South Africa.

Undocumented immigrants

Schreiber said 19,750 undocumented immigrants were sent back to their countries of origin, costing the government R52,817,656.

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This represents an increase from the 10,808 deportations in 2022/23.

Schreiber said in annualised terms, home affairs is set for the “strongest immigration enforcement performance in years.”

“We are now on track to outperform last year by a full 50% when there were 39 627 deportations over 12 months. We are also on course for a whopping 164% increase in deportations compared to 2022/23 when the number was only 22 436 over a full year,” Schreiber said.

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Asylum seekers

Schreiber said there were more than 150,000 recorded asylum seekers and refugees in the country, with the most from Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Bangladesh among others.

He said there are 68 991 active refugees with 21 202 from Somalia, 13 680 from Ethiopia, 20 624, from DRC, 3 408 from Zimbabwe and 932 from Rwanda.

Schreiber added there are also four refugees from Yemen, three from Ukraine and 40 from Syria (40).

Schreiber said 94 416 foreign nationals had valid Section 22 permits, while 85 862 active cases were renewed more than once.

Corrupt officials

Last week, Schreiber revealed that in the last 3 months, the Home Affairs Department disciplined 31 officials and facilitated prosecution against two others

The disciplinary cases resulted in a range of sanctions including criminal prosecution, dismissal, suspension without pay and final written warnings.

Schreiber said the home affairs officials faced transgressions relating to irregular recruitment, violation of the Citizenship Act and the violation of the Immigration Act. .

Proclamation

In February, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a proclamation empowering the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to probe serious maladministration at Home Affairs relating to the issuance of permanent residence permits, corporate visas, business visas, and critical/exceptional skills work visas, among others.

Three months later, the SIU and Hawks conducted searches and seized evidence at Home Affairs offices in five provinces.

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