00:00Back on home soil in Lagos for the first group of 262 Nigerians who were repatriated from South Africa
00:07amid an uptick in anti-immigrant protests and attacks in that country.
00:12Foreigners say they've been intimidated and beaten by mobs going door-to-door
00:16with some families forced from their homes, resulting in many taking up the government's offer of assistance to leave.
00:22I traveled to South Africa in 1998. I've been staying in South Africa.
00:27The xenophobia test started. So they do the first one, they destroy our test.
00:33We managed to recover during our former president, Buhari.
00:39Now they started the second one again, and this second one is very, very deadly.
00:43Ghana, Mozambique and Malawi have already repatriated hundreds of their citizens in recent weeks.
00:48South Africa, while condemning violence against foreigners, says many of the returnees were in the country illegally.
00:54I've seen South Africa in 11 years. They don't show us love, we don't have freedom.
01:00Even when you apply to have your resina permit, they will use the opportunity to arrest you and put you
01:06inside.
01:07Nigerian foreign affairs officials say around 1,000 people in total have said they want to leave South Africa,
01:13with the second group due to be flown out on the 15th of June.
01:16The government's promised each returnee $730.
01:20We have Nigerians that are doing genuine business in South Africa.
01:23They are being frustrated. Now some of them have abandoned their business to return to the country.
01:27So it's not a good development, but we are considering different options.
01:32If the situation escalates, definitely necessary reciprocity will be activated.
01:37South Africa hosts more than 3 million foreigners, just over 5% of its population.
01:44But unemployment exceeds 30%, fueling anger towards migrant workers.
Comments