10,000 illegal migrants deported from South Africa in 2019

South Africa Department of Home Affairs said it was clamping down on illegal migration and that plans were in place to secure the country's porous borders.

Home Affairs Minister spokesman Siya Qoza on Wednesday told Xinhua that over 10,000 illegal migrants have been deported from South Africa in the first six months of this year. "These deportations happen regularly, following the prescribed legal processes."

He said charges had been lodged against companies that employ undocumented foreign nationals. The department would intensify inspections of companies who were breaching the law.

"In the same period we have charged 1,048 employers for breaching immigration laws and more than half of these were in Gauteng. With regards to hiring of undocumented foreign nationals, we will clamp down on private business owners who do not abide by the Labour and Immigration Laws," said the spokesman.

Qoza said the department was planning to implement the Border Management Authority in the next financial year to improve the security at the borderline and ports of entry.

"The Border Management Authority will help us because the problem is not the actual port, but the border line. This will allow us to have guards along the borderline and also simply process people around the border," said Qoza.

Some South Africans including Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba have criticized the Department of Home Affairs, claiming it was not doing enough to tackle illegal migration.