South Africa to charge foreign governments for deporting their nationals

South Africa is moving to bill foreign governments for the cost of deporting their nationals who violate the country's immigration laws — a significant policy shift aimed at reducing the financial strain on the South African state.

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) announced the proposal as protests targeting undocumented foreign nationals continue across the country, with several nations having already evacuated their citizens in response to the unrest.

The Financial Cost of Deportations

South Africa has deported more than 100,000 undocumented migrants over the past two years, an exercise that has cost the state millions of rand. The government now says countries of origin must begin sharing that financial burden.

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DIRCO spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said recent voluntary repatriations by foreign governments have demonstrated that countries have the capacity to take responsibility for their own citizens — and that South Africa intends to formalise that expectation going forward.

"Moving forward, we will also be billing countries for their foreign nationals who have to be deported or who are in our criminal detention facilities and have to be deported back into their countries. At least now we can see that there's capacity for countries to extract the foreign nationals who have fallen foul of the law. That's something that through the department of home affairs we will pursue as a government," Phiri said.

A New Approach to Migration Management

The government says the policy is designed not only to recover costs but also to encourage stronger cooperation from countries of origin in managing undocumented migration into South Africa.

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The announcement comes at a sensitive moment, with anti-immigration protests intensifying in parts of the country and diplomatic tensions rising as foreign embassies move to protect their citizens on South African soil.

South Africa's move mirrors approaches taken by several European nations in recent years, signalling a harder line on immigration enforcement and a push to make the process of deportation a shared international responsibility rather than a cost borne solely by the host country.