Authorities in Ghana have started evacuating citizens from South Africa following growing fears over anti-immigration protests in several South African cities.
The first batch of returnees, part of about 800 Ghanaians who registered for evacuation, were scheduled to depart from Johannesburg on Wednesday morning.
Reports showed buses arranged by the Ghanaian embassy transporting dozens of passengers, including men, women, and children, to the OR Tambo International Airport in the early hours of the day. A separate group was reportedly escorted in a police vehicle and monitored by security officials.
Ghanaian authorities said an initial group of 300 people would leave first, while screening continued for the remaining citizens expected to travel later.
Some of the evacuees blamed the recent anti-immigration demonstrations for their decision to leave South Africa.
Rudolph, a Ghanaian businessman who said he had lived in South Africa for a decade, explained that the atmosphere had become unbearable.
“It’s not comfortable for us to stay here anymore, so we have to go. I think we will find peace at home,” he said.
The protests have reportedly been organised by a group known as March and March, which has been demanding stricter immigration policies and calling on undocumented migrants to leave the country before June 30.
Rudolph expressed fears that the situation could worsen.
“The protests started in Durban, and they’ve escalated to other provinces. So definitely something bad could happen,” he added.
He also stated that he had no plans to return to South Africa.
Speaking on the evacuation, Benjamin Quashie, Ghana’s high commissioner to South Africa, said the government decided to act after receiving complaints from citizens who felt unsafe and economically stranded.
“The Ghanaian government listened to the plight of its citizens in South Africa, who felt that their lives were in danger, who felt like the economic activity that they were engaging in had come to a standstill, who felt unwelcome in this country, and it is the responsibility of every government to ensure that its citizens are taken care of both home and abroad,” he said.
Quashie also noted that Ghana has a reintegration programme to support returning citizens.
“The government is willing to establish them in whatever business they were doing in South Africa. In a way, we’re also helping the South African economy, because it’s clear that some of them are undocumented.
“So taking them out of here will let them know that we are not people who condone undocumented people in countries,” he added.
The renewed anti-migrant tensions have sparked concerns about a possible return of xenophobic violence in South Africa, where previous attacks on foreign nationals claimed dozens of lives in 2008 and 2019.
