Ghana’s government has issued a travel advisory urging its citizens to exercise extreme caution when travelling to South Africa following concerns about alleged xenophobic attacks and anti-immigration protests.
Ghana has advised its citizens against travelling to South Africa due to concerns over alleged xenophobic attacks. It follows recent anti-immigration protests in the country.
The advisory was shared as a statement on X.
Concerns over treatment of Ghanaians nationals
The government of Ghana says that it has formally raised concerns about the treatment of Ghanaians in South Africa to the acting high commissioner in Accra and has also petitioned the African Union.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has urged Ghanaians to exercise extreme caution when travelling to South Africa.
It has encouraged those already in the country to remain in contact with the Ghanaian embassy.
The statement also requests that South Africa provide adequate security to its citizens from being targeted by vigilantes.
The advisory comes after Ghana last week, repatriated the first group of citizens who had asked for assistance to return home.
More than 800 Ghanaians had registered for voluntary evacuation, with 300 departing on a repatriation flight from OR Tambo International Airport on Wednesday morning.
This follows a rise in protests against illegal immigration in parts of the country in recent weeks.
Issues picked up during verification process
Meanwhile Home Affairs Immigration and Law Enforcement head, Stephen van Neel has told the SABC that they encountered challenges during the verification process.
“What we have found is that of the 300 individuals that are on that list, we only found 10 of them being legal in the country. The rest of them are all illegal without documents or actually not complying, [and] have overstayed.
“But there are some sort of sanctions that need to be taken, and the Department of Home Affairs will indeed make sure that those are implemented.”
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