Accra Almanac: Ghana Brings Home Its First Returnees as South Africa's Migrant Crisis Deepens

Why you should care: Ghana has begun repatriating its nationals from South Africa, with a first group of around 300 returnees flown home this week, after weeks of anti-immigrant protests and vigilante actions targeting foreign nationals across Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Durban. If you have family among sub-Saharan migrants in South Africa, this is the story to be tracking.

What’s happening: Human Rights Watch warned of a new wave of xenophobic attacks driven by anti-immigration movements such as Operation Dudula and March and March. Reported harassment includes intimidation, unlawful evictions, workplace discrimination, and denial of access to healthcare. South Africa’s Border Management Authority said about 90% of one day’s departing travelers were undocumented — many having overstayed visas — while Ghana’s high commissioner criticised South African permit-processing backlogs that left people in limbo. Returnees told Reuters and AFP they were leaving because the harassment had become constant.

The wider squeeze: This lands as South Africa overhauls its immigration framework — a Revised White Paper approved April 7 moving to merit/points-based residence and naturalisation, a fixed annual application window, and harder enforcement on employers who don’t verify status. The practical effect for migrants already struggling with backlogs is more pressure, not less.

Practical: If you have relatives who are Ghanaian (or other sub-Saharan) nationals in South Africa, the safety basics matter now: keep documentation current and copies accessible, know the location and contact routes of your home country’s high commission, and follow official repatriation channels rather than informal ones. For Ghanaians specifically, the high commission in Pretoria is the first point of contact on returns and permit issues.

Signal: This is a migrant-safety and consular story, not a partisan one. The throughline TWB cares about is the gap between where people went for opportunity and the protection they can actually count on there.

This piece touches a situation involving violence and displacement. Where safety is at stake, rely on official consular guidance.

— TWB Newsroom