The Commissioner of the Border Management Authority (BMA), Dr Michael Masiapato, confirmed that the BMA has successfully processed 300 Ghanaians who were repatriated back to Ghana at OR Tambo International Airport.
According to the BMA, out of the 300, 25 of them came from the Lindela holding facility and were brought by the Immigration Inspectorate of the Department of Home Affairs.
Furthermore, 275 were brought by the Ghanaian High Commissioner.
Following a check-in process, the travellers proceeded to BMA immigration, wherein about 90% of them were found to be undocumented and the Ghanaian Embassy had to issue them with Emergency Travel Certificates. This is a one-way single-page document which allows a traveller to return to their country of origin.
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Most of the travellers were found to have overstayed with more than 30 days while some overstayed by a year or more. As a result, they were declared undesirable in terms of Sec 30 of the Immigration Act, read regulations 27(3)(c) of the Immigration Regulations.
At the end of the processing, 295 passengers were found eligible to depart, they then boarded the chartered flight arranged by the Ghanaian government through its High Commission in Pretoria and eventually departed.
However, five travellers were refused departure for the following reasons:
One passenger had a valid asylum seeker permit. As such, he could not be allowed to depart without cancelling his application for protection in South Africa as that would have been tantamount to refoulement. All asylum seekers are required to cancel their application for protection if they are to return to their country where they were fleeing from.
One passenger did not have a valid travel document as he was in possession of expired passport and the Embassy had not issued him with the Emergency Travel Certificate.
One woman was attempting to depart the country with two minor children who are understood to belong to her sister. However, she did not have any document to proof any relation nor the required consent documentation from the alleged sister.
These decisions are in line with the BMA’s mandate to facilitate the legitimate movement of persons and goods.
The travellers who were denied departure due to the above reasons, were handed back to the Ghanaian High Commissioner for future repatriation should they meet the relevant immigration requirements for departure.
These Ghanaian nationals were repatriated through the facilitation of the Ghanaian government through its High Commission in Pretoria using a chartered aircraft.
“This decisive action underscores the BMA’s uncompromising implementation of the South African legislative framework in its facilitation and management of people and goods movement in and out of the country,” Commissioner Masiapato said.
