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South Africa’s government said on Monday that it is stepping up action against illegal migrants, calling on citizens not to take the law into their own hands, as protests against undocumented foreign nationals escalate.
Several ministers held an urgent meeting to address weeks of nationwide protests against undocumented foreign nationals, whom anti-migrant groups accuse of crime and taking work from locals.
An ultimatum by one citizen-led group for illegal migrants to be expelled by June 30 has raised fears of violence after previous bouts of anti-migrant unrest that claimed dozens of lives.
“We do have an irregular immigration problem,” deputy home affairs minister Njabulo Nzuza told reporters after the meeting.
But “it should not be that because there is this problem, then we must throw the country into chaos,” Nzuza said.
The government was boosting border controls and inspections, and growing numbers of irregular migrants were being deported, he said.
A team of deputy ministers would be deployed to assess and boost the visibility of inspections, said justice minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, adding it was a “work in progress”.
“All we are asking is that … let it happen within the law,” she said.
“Only law enforcement officers have the right and responsibility to be asking for the identities of people,” said defence minister Angie Motshekga, after reports that vigilante groups were checking the documentation of foreign nationals.
Last week, several hundred foreign nationals from countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Somalia, sought protection in the eastern port city of Durban, saying locals were going door-to-door to tell them to leave by June 30.
There was a new protest in Cape Town at the weekend, and on Monday, hundreds of residents of the Katlehong township, southwest of Johannesburg, marched to demand police verify the documents of foreign nationals operating businesses.
This rise in anti-migrant sentiment has led some African governments to express alarm, while Ghana is planning to repatriate hundreds of its nationals this week, its high commissioner Benjamin Quashie told AFP, admitting many had expired work permits.
The government has meanwhile urged African nations to address the economic and governance crises that cause people to flock to South Africa, the continent’s most industrialised country.
South Africa has experienced repeated waves of xenophobic violence over the past two decades.
In 2008, 62 people – including 21 South Africans – were killed in anti-immigrant riots, and thousands were displaced. Further outbreaks followed in 2015 and 2016.
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