By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber says 19,750 undocumented immigrants were sent back to their countries of origin, costing the government R52,817,656.
Schreiber was responding in a recent Q&A session in parliament, after the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) raised concerns about the R52.8m spent on deporting illegal immigrants between April and August.
This represents an increase from the 10,808 deportations in 2022/23.
EFF MP Thapelo Mogale raised concerns about the amount, suggesting the funds could have been better used to strengthen border management and prevent unauthorised entries of foreigners.
Schreiber said in annualised terms, home affairs is set for the “strongest immigration enforcement performance in years.”
“We are now on track to outperform last year by a full 50% when there were 39 627 deportations over 12 months. We are also on course for a whopping 164% increase in deportations compared to 2022/23 when the number was only 22 436 over a full year,” Schreiber said.
Schreiber said there were more than 150,000 recorded asylum seekers and refugees in the country, with the most from Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Bangladesh among others.
He said there are 68 991 active refugees with 21 202 from Somalia, 13 680 from Ethiopia, 20 624, from DRC, 3 408 from Zimbabwe and 932 from Rwanda.
Schreiber added there are also four refugees from Yemen, three from Ukraine and 40 from Syria (40).
Schreiber said 94 416 foreign nationals had valid Section 22 permits, while 85 862 active cases were renewed more than once.
The top five countries of origin for deported individuals in 2022/23 were Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.