759 Malawians stuck at Lindela
Seven hundred fifty-nine undocumented Malawian emigrants who are in South Africa are still stuck at Lindela Repatriation Centre awaiting discussions between the two countries for their release.
Spokesperson in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rejoice Shumba, said the number is lower that the initial one of 1200 Malawians who were detained at the centre as of December 2016.
However, Shumba said their repatriation depends on the South African Government which is the arresting country although on the other hand, the Malawi Government is also lacking resources to free its people.
“It is not that we have stopped repatriating people, we are still processing their release but the initiative to repatriate them depends on the arresting county. It is South Africa’s responsibility. Our initiative is to talk with our counterparts to repatriate the detainees and I can say that such discussions are taking a good course because some 441 have been sent back home,” she said.
Shumba said some of the detainees do not have money to pay for transport to get back home and they are waiting for the South African Government to find resources for their deportation.
She also said that the government is concerned by the conduct of some people who after being repatriated resort to return to the foreign country. She was, however, quick to say that the government will not stop pushing for the repatriation of such people.
“Our resources are not enough to repatriate people from South Africa and you will recall that during the xenophobic attacks, we used a lot of money to bring the people home but what we saw was that they were just coming to deliver their goods and went back to South Africa. That meant the initiative did not achieve its intended purpose to the fullest,” she said.
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