Question NW1625 to the Minister of Home Affairs
24 June 2021 - NW1625
Luthuli, Mr BN to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
(1)Whether, given the current levels of illegal immigration into the Republic, the Government have an estimate of the total number of undocumented immigrants who are in the Republic; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what is the total breakdown by nationality; (2) whether his department has any plans in the medium term to enforce immigration legislation by deporting illegal immigrants; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
1. The government does not have a precise number of the number of undocumented immigrants in Republic due to the clandestine nature of the act of being here illegally. A number of persons entered without being recorded on any system and live here as unrecorded. It is only when they are detected or their presence is noted that we are able to have figures. The number of undocumented migrants that were deported in 2019/20 was 29376 with the nationality breakdown as follows:
|
Mozambique |
13834 |
Pakistan |
32 |
Burundi |
15 |
Bolivia |
6 |
|
Zimbabwe |
5790 |
Zambia |
31 |
Ethiopia |
13 |
Algeria |
3 |
|
Malawi |
4277 |
China |
29 |
Botswana |
11 |
Cape Verde |
3 |
|
Lesotho |
3963 |
India |
29 |
Cameroon |
11 |
Senegal |
3 |
|
Tanzania |
517 |
Bangladesh |
26 |
Thailand |
11 |
Bulgaria |
2 |
|
Eswatini |
314 |
Ghana |
25 |
Brazil |
10 |
Guyana |
2 |
|
Nigeria |
176 |
Angola |
22 |
Congo-Brazzaville |
10 |
Iraq |
2 |
|
DRC |
87 |
Kenya |
21 |
Somalia |
8 |
Sri Lanka |
2 |
|
Uganda |
50 |
Namibia |
19 |
Egypt |
7 |
UK |
2 |
|
Spain |
1 |
Saudi Arabia |
1 |
Saint Vincent |
1 |
Peru |
1 |
|
Venezuela |
2 |
Cuba |
1 |
Gabon |
1 |
Morocco |
1 |
|
Cote d’Voire |
1 |
Ecuador |
1 |
Israel |
1 |
Palestine |
1 |
and in 2020/21 deportations dropped with the onset of the Covid pandemic and stood at 14859 the breakdown as follows:
|
Lesotho |
5769 |
Kenya |
5 |
|
Zimbabwe |
3226 |
UK |
4 |
|
Mozambique |
2714 |
Botswana |
3 |
|
Malawi |
2019 |
China |
3 |
|
Eswatini |
622 |
Thailand |
3 |
|
Tanzania |
236 |
Cameroon |
2 |
|
Nigeria |
59 |
Guinea |
2 |
|
DRC |
51 |
Paraguay |
2 |
|
Namibia |
24 |
Philippines |
2 |
|
Angola |
23 |
Argentina |
1 |
|
Burundi |
19 |
Bolivia |
1 |
|
Brazil |
13 |
Bulgaria |
1 |
|
Uganda |
9 |
Germany |
1 |
|
Zambia |
8 |
Guyana |
1 |
|
Pakistan |
1 |
||
|
Seychelles |
1 |
||
|
Sierra Leone |
1 |
||
|
USA |
1 |
2. The department is mandated by legislation to enforce immigration act and deport illegal immigrants. This activity continues unabated as reflected in response to question 1 above.
END