South Africa has announced plans to begin charging foreign governments, including Nigeria, for the cost of deporting their citizens who violate the country’s immigration laws.
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The move comes as the South African government intensifies efforts to address illegal migration amid rising anti-immigration sentiments in the country.
According to reports, the policy was disclosed by South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation.
The department said the government would seek to recover expenses incurred in detaining and deporting undocumented foreign nationals.
South African authorities said more than 100,000 undocumented migrants had been deported in the last two years, placing what they described as a heavy financial burden on the government.
Under the proposed arrangement, countries whose citizens are arrested and deported for immigration-related offences will be expected to bear the cost of their repatriation.
The department said the policy would apply to foreign nationals who are either deported after violating immigration laws or removed from criminal detention facilities back to their home countries.
“Moving forward, we will also be billing countries for their foreign nationals who have to be deported or who are in our criminal detention facilities and have to be deported back into their countries,” the department said.
It added that the government would work with the Department of Home Affairs to ensure implementation of the policy.
The development comes amid renewed diplomatic concerns between Nigeria and South Africa over the treatment of Nigerians living in the country, including recent issues around xenophobic attacks, deportation and repatriation.
Nigeria had recently commenced the evacuation of some of its citizens from South Africa following reports of renewed xenophobic violence, with officials indicating that more than 1,000 Nigerians had shown interest in returning home.
The new policy, if implemented, may place additional financial and diplomatic pressure on countries with large numbers of nationals living in South Africa without proper immigration documentation.
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