South Africa has removed more than 53,000 migrants over the last five weeks through deportations and repatriations following pressure from anti-migrant groups.
Africa’s biggest economy has been on a knife edge for months over growing anti-migrant sentiment and xenophobic violence in a society where one in three is unemployed, and municipal services are deteriorating.
Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, who announced the figures and is part of a government team carrying out a sweeping crackdown, said Malawians, Mozambicans, and Zimbabweans made up the bulk of those sent overseas.
Campaigners have vowed weekly protests and given President Cyril Ramaphosa until the end of the year to enforce mass deportations and workplace quotas. The latest announcement may buy the government a reprieve with civic groups, who have begun acting as vigilante labor inspectors, entering factories to check for foreign workers. Government officials say labor inspections are illegal.