South Africa accused of failing to crack down on anti-immigrant violence
Nigeria is the latest African country to organise evacuation flights from South Africa, with a first group of 262 Nigerians repatriated on Thursday.
The Nigerian government has chartered four other flights over the next two weeks. According to Nigeria's Foreign Ministry, 1,092 Nigerians have so far registered to leave South Africa voluntarily.
Zimbabwe, Ghana, Mozambique and Malawi have already repatriated hundreds of their citizens in recent weeks.
Since April, a series of anti-immigration protests have led to attacks on foreign workers in the rainbow nation. As unemployment hovers above 30 percent, angry locals claim other Africans are taking their jobs.
“Migrants are made scapegoats,” post-apartheid South Africa specialist Cécile Perrot told RFI. Amid endemic poverty and unemployment, they are blamed for worsening standards of living, she said, while social media amplifies hate speech and fuels the anger.
South Africa, which has long been a destination for both legal and undocumented African workers, has faced recurring waves of xenophobic attacks since 2008, when dozens of migrants died and thousands were displaced.
In the latest spate of violence, two Mozambicans were killed and hundreds of people injured.
'No consequences'
“The government in South Africa is not taking drastic measures against the people responsible for xenophobic violence in the country,” said Smart Nwobi, president of the Nigerian Union South Africa association.
“Ordinary citizens here go up to foreign nationals and ask to see their papers. Then, they take the law into their own hands. They are not the police! And they face no consequences for their actions,” declared Nwobi, a lawyer who acts as a liaison between the Nigerian embassy and Nigerian nationals in South Africa.
He claimed some police officers were siding with anti-immigration groups.
“Some police officers are marching with those groups. While they have a constitutional right to their opinion, to march, it cannot come at the cost of other people's rights,” he told RFI. Protesters gather under a South African flag during a march against undocumented migrants in Springs, Ekurhuleni, on 8 June 2026.
According to Nwobi, foreign nationals who failed to show ID to civilians demanding to see it have been beaten up. He also alleged that the police turn a blind eye to such violence.
Not everyone fleeing South Africa is an undocumented migrant. People with legal refugee status have also been swept up in the unrest – such as Christian Tchizungu, originally from Bukavu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
He was forced to abandon the beauty salon he and his wife ran in Durban. A South African employee has since taken over the premises.
"We can't go back home because of the situation there. And we can't stay here either. They're going to kill us. I've lived here for 20 years. I know these people. If the government and the United Nations don't do something for us, we're going to be killed,” he told France 24.
South Africa unrest grows as migrants become 'scapegoats'
Political calculations
Anti-immigration groups in South Africa have set a 30 June deadline for illegal immigrants to leave the country.
Two organisations have emerged as driving forces behind the latest unrest: the March and March movement, launched by radio presenter Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, and Operation Dudula, which started as a civil society group and has now established itself as a political party.
Nwobi agrees with analysts who suggest that the resurgence of anti-migrant sentiment is linked to local elections scheduled for November.
“The xenophobic attacks this time round are more coordinated than in previous years. There is a political dimension in that parties want to use the anti-migration rhetoric to win votes in November,” he said. Anti-migration groups take part in a march calling for stronger government action against illegal immigration in Pretoria, South Africa, on 28 April 2026.
Nwobi suggests the government is hesitant to crack down on anti-immigration agitators in case it hurts its chances in the upcoming elections.
He said that many foreigners living in South Africa were disappointed by the emergency address on migration made by President Cyril Ramaphosa last weekend, believing he did not give a stern enough warning to the people responsible for the violence.
Instead, Ramaphosa promised to crack down on illegal migration.
“This made a lot of people say: 'this is a losing battle. It's better we go because at the end of the day, no consequences will follow if we are killed, if our shops are looted, if we are forcefully thrown out of our residence,'” Nwobi said.
South Africa rejects xenophobia claims over anti-migrant protests
Threat of legal action
While the South African government has denied that xenophobia is driving the unrest, other countries in Africa have condemned what they say are nativist attacks.
“Nigerians are not happy about how they have treated us,” Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Nigeria's foreign minister, told reporters in Abuja on Monday. “They are not asking other migrants to leave, they are only asking black migrants to leave.”
Ghana's foreign minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said last month he had formally requested that “the South African xenophobic attacks targeted at Africans” be placed on the agenda at the African Union's mid-year meeting on 27 June.
The Ghanaian government has repatriated nearly 1,000 of its nationals from South Africa since May. Speaking last weekend, Ablakwa said Ghana was considering taking legal action in international courts.
“We have made it clear that the matter does not end with the evacuation of Ghanaians. There has to be accountability and there has to be a price to pay,” he told Joy FM radio station on 6 June. “We have told the South Africans that we expect them to take responsibility and compensate our nationals.”
In response, South African foreign minister Ronald Lamola said the government would “vigorously defend any frivolous or baseless lawsuit emanating from Ghana against South Africa”.
In a statement posted on social media, he said: “We are, and will remain, open to discussing the push and pull factors relating to migration at a bilateral level, the African Union or any multilateral forum but let us be factual in our engagements.”