Nigeria to repatriate more than 1,000 of its citizens from South Africa over rising tensions

South Africa

Nigeria says it will repatriate more than 1,000 of its nationals from South Africa as anti-immigrant tensions rise in the country.

Screening for Nigeria's voluntary repatriation scheme started on Thursday, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry told reporters.

In a communique dated Tuesday, Nigeria's High Commission in Pretoria said it had "negotiated waivers with host authorities" so that those with "immigration-related offences" would be allowed to leave on the eventual repatriation flights rather than be detained.

The move comes after Ghana recently helped hundreds of its citizens leave South Africa in response to a wave of protests and violence targeting foreigners.

One of the continent’s most industrialised nations, South Africa has long attracted workers from across the region.

But now with an unemployment rate of more than 30 percent, it has seen repeated bursts of xenophobic protests -- including renewed violence in recent weeks. The latest tensions have revived debates across Africa about xenophobia, migration and the gap between pan-African rhetoric and realities facing migration on the continent.

An ultimatum by one citizen-led group for illegal migrants to be expelled by June 30 has raised fears of violence after bouts of anti-immigrant unrest in the past that claimed dozens of lives.

The South African government has said it is stepping up enforcement against undocumented immigrants but urged citizens not to take matters into their own hands.

There are more than three million foreigners living in South Africa, or 5.1 percent of the population, according to the statistics agency. More than 63 percent come from countries in the 16-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc.