80% of 300 Ghanaians evacuated from South Africa were documented migrants — High Commissioner

Ghana's High Commissioner to South Africa, Benjamin Quashie, has rejected claims by South African authorities that only 10 out of the 300 Ghanaians evacuated on Wednesday, May 27, were documented migrants.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Head of Immigration and Law Enforcement at South Africa’s Home Affairs Department, Stephen van Neel, said several of the evacuees had disregard the country's immigration laws.

“Of the 300 individuals that were on that list, we only found 10 of them to be legal in the country. We obviously have to make sure that certain sanctions are enforced,” van Neel said.

However, speaking on Accra-based TV3’s Ghana Tonight show on Wednesday, the Ghanaian envoy disputed the claims, insisting that the majority of those evacuated were documented migrants.

“Let me state on record that 80% of the 300 people that we got repatriated to Ghana today were documented immigrants in South Africa. Twenty per cent were undocumented,” he said.

The development comes after weeks of reported violence and unrest in parts of South Africa, where foreign-owned shops have been attacked and migrants chased away during protests against illegal immigration.

The situation has triggered evacuation efforts by the Government of Ghana, with the first batch of about 300 citizens, out of an expected 800, arriving in Accra on Wednesday, May 27.