Ghanaian authorities are repatriating the first group of 800 citizens they say have registered to be flown home from South Africa on Wednesday morning.
The BBC saw dozens of buses chartered by the Ghanaian embassy dropping off passengers at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport around 03:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
There were men, women and children of all ages. A smaller group of people also arrived in a police van and were kept apart from the majority of passengers and watched over by police.
It follows a wave of protests against illegal immigration in South African cities in recent weeks, leading to fears there could be a resurgence in xenophobic violence in the country.
All the passengers were registered by embassy and airport staff.
Ghanaian authorities told the BBC that an initial 300 people would leave on Wednesday morning. The remaining registered citizens were still being screened and would depart at a later date.
Few of the departing passengers wanted to speak to journalists but Rudolph, who’s lived in South Africa for 10 years and runs a salon, told the BBC he was leaving because of the recent protests.
“It’s not comfortable for us to stay here anymore, so we have to go. I think we will find peace at home,” he said.
There are an estimated 25,000 Ghanaians living in South Africa.
Demonstrators say illegal migrants are putting pressure on public services and have asked the South African government to do more to stop it.
The demonstrations have been organised by a group called March and March, which describes itself as a citizen-led movement for immigration reform.
It has set a 30 June deadline for illegal immigrants to leave the country. Rudolph worries that deadline could lead to violence.
“The protests started in Durban, and they’ve escalated to other provinces. So definitely something bad could happen.” He added he would never return to South Africa.
Ghanaian High Commissioner Benjamin Quashie told the BBC he wanted to ensure the country’s citizens were safe.
“The Ghanaian government listened to the plight of its citizens in South Africa, who felt that their lives were in danger, who felt like the economic activity that they were engaging in had come to a standstill, who felt unwelcome in this country, and it is the responsibility of every government to ensure that its citizens are taken care of both home and abroad.”
When asked what they were doing to ensure illegal migrants from Ghana did not come to South Africa, he said they had a reintegration strategy in place for those returning.
“The government is willing to establish them into whatever business they were doing in South Africa. In a way, we’re also helping the South African economy, because it’s clear that some of them are undocumented. So taking them out of here will let them know that we are not people who condone undocumented people in countries.”
Some analysts have suggested the resurgence of anti-migrant sentiment in South Africa could be linked to local elections scheduled for November.
In 2019, at least 12 people were killed and in 2008, 62 foreign nationals died in attacks on foreigners across the country.
But the organisers of recent protests have said they have been peaceful.
Earlier this month, the South African government condemned criminal acts directed at foreigners, whilst conceding the country needed to deal with illegal immigration.
