JOHANNESBURG, July 2 (Xinhua) -- More than 35,000 individuals have been processed through voluntary repatriation and deportation operations at South Africa's Beitbridge Border Post in Limpopo Province since the government intensified migration enforcement measures in early June, authorities said on Thursday.
Speaking during a media briefing at the border post, Acting Commissioner of the Border Management Authority David Chilembe said: "Since we started here on the seventh, when the president announced the measures that we have to put in place with regard to migration issues, we have dealt with more than 35,000 people that we have repatriated and deported through this border post."
The majority of those processed were Zimbabwean and Malawian nationals, Chilembe said, adding that on Wednesday alone, authorities handled about 2,400 people, including around 1,700 Malawians and 700 Zimbabweans.
The intensified repatriation drive follows months of growing public protests over illegal migration, which began in April and culminated in a nationwide demonstration on Tuesday, with thousands of migrants, particularly from Malawi, gathering at a temporary repatriation center in Durban before the government relocated operations to a new facility in Limpopo's Musina, near the Beitbridge border crossing with Zimbabwe.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said on Wednesday that authorities had processed 525 government-arranged buses transporting migrants, mainly to neighboring countries, including Malawi and Zimbabwe.
Noting that more than 30,000 migrants had been repatriated from the eThekwini metropolitan area alone in KwaZulu-Natal Province, he said: "The latest number of buses from the government side that we have processed is 525 buses, so indeed, we're looking at tens and thousands that've already been successfully repatriated." ■