A new batch of 83 Nigerians have returned from South Africa following renewed concerns over attacks targeting African migrants in the country.
The returnees arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, aboard a South African Airways flight from Johannesburg, in a repatriation exercise facilitated by private individuals.
The spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, disclosed this in a statement, saying the returnees were accompanied by two officials from the Consulate-General of Nigeria in Johannesburg.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is pleased to announce the successful arrival of 83 Nigerian returnees at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, aboard a South African Airways flight from Johannesburg,” Ebienfa said.
He said the exercise was made possible through the procurement of flight tickets by private individuals, whose support enabled the Nigerians to return safely.
Upon arrival, the returnees were received by the Director of the African Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Haruna Ali-Gombe, on behalf of the Federal Government.
They were subsequently handed over to relevant government agencies for documentation and profiling ahead of their reunification with their families.
The latest return comes about a month after the Federal Government concluded an earlier evacuation exercise from South Africa amid an uptick in xenophobic attacks.
Weeks before the latest repatriation, the Nigerian High Commission in South Africa opened an online registration portal for Nigerians seeking to participate in a second repatriation exercise.
The acting high commissioner, Alexander Ajayi, said the mission was compiling the data of interested Nigerians pending the availability of sponsors willing to fund their return tickets.
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The High Commission had urged private organizations and individuals to support the exercise and kept the registration portal open until August 12.
Ebienfa expressed the Federal Government’s “profound gratitude” to the private individuals who sponsored the latest returnees’ tickets.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s Consul General in Lagos, Bobby Moroe, has rejected the description of South Africa as a xenophobic country, saying its constitutional provisions, treatment of migrants and efforts to regularize undocumented foreigners do not support such a characterization.
Moroe spoke at a roundtable discussion on “South Africa’s ‘Xenophobia’ in Comparative Perspective”, organized by the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in Lagos, where he acknowledged violent incidents involving African migrants but urged stakeholders to examine the issue using facts and data rather than isolated acts of criminality to define an entire country or its people.
Moroe said South Africa hosts about 3.9 million migrants, representing roughly 6.3 per cent of its estimated 65 million population. He said about 2.4 million of the migrants are documented, while the remainder are undocumented.
He attributed some tensions to unemployment, poverty and pressure on public services, arguing that such challenges should be addressed through effective migration governance rather than violence.
In his remarks, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Sola Enikanolaiye, called on Nigeria and South Africa to intensify efforts to tackle Afrophobia and prevent hostility towards African migrants from damaging relations between the two countries.
Enikanolaiye described the issue as a human, diplomatic and continental concern, rather than merely an academic debate.
The Director-General of NIIA, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, said the issue should also be viewed against South Africa’s history of colonialism and apartheid.
He stressed the importance of continued cooperation between Nigeria and South Africa, noting that both countries have historically played significant roles in advancing Pan-Africanism and continental integration.
Daily Trust
