Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber says 109,735 undocumented foreigners have been arrested and deported in the past five financial years, from 2021/2022 to 2025/2026. This emerged in a written reply to a parliamentary question by MK party MP Mnqobi Prince Msezane, who asked for details about the number of undocumented foreigners identified as living in South Africa. Msezane also asked about allegations that undocumented foreigners were employed in public and private sector institutions without valid work permits. In response, Schreiber said 6,279 workplace inspections and enforcement operations had been conducted during the specified period. He said 8,180 employers had been charged for employing foreigners without valid work permits in the past five years. “Enforcement measures implemented to strengthen compliance with immigration laws include interventions and disruptions through inspections that are intelligence-driven as well as rapid responses to reported incidents that require operations/inspections.” Further to that, to accelerate the verification and identification process, handheld mobile devices will be used remotely to access departmental systems while operating in the field.“This will increase the arrests of those found to be illegally in the country, as there will be an immediate response on status for contravention of the departmental legislation.” Schreiber said penalties and sanctions imposed on employers who hire undocumented foreigners are governed in terms of the Immigration Act. His reply referenced nationwide inspections conducted last year where 68 employers and 322 foreigners were found to be violating immigration regulations. Each of the 68 employers paid an admission of guilt fine of R10,000, resulting in a total of R680,000 in fines. The 322 undocumented employees were handed over to immigration authorities for further processing. The Eastern Cape recorded the highest number of non-compliant employers with 34 businesses fined a collective R340,000. Mpumalanga followed with 15 cases while Limpopo recorded eight, KwaZulu-Natal five and the Western Cape two. Of the 322 arrested foreign workers, most, 163, were in Limpopo, followed by 43 in the Western Cape, 34 each in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng, 30 in Mpumalanga, 16 in KwaZulu-Natal and two in the Free State. According to Schreiber, between April 2023 and March 2024 the department processed 6,255 work permit applications, of which 5,383 were denied. Of the 872 work permits approved, 445 were granted to Zimbabweans, the highest number approved during the period. Lesotho nationals received 250 work permits, followed by Mozambicans with 86 and Namibians with 70. Most of the applications were in the mining, agriculture, and education and training sectors. TimesLIVE