Migrants queue to board the first of seven buses at Sherwood Park in Durban for repatriation to Malawi.
The two terms are often used together, but they describe different processes.
Repatriation generally refers to the organised return of foreign nationals to their home countries, including returns facilitated in cooperation with their countries of origin.
Deportation, on the other hand, is an immigration enforcement process.
The government has stressed that South Africa has a legal obligation to deport people found to have contravened the Immigration Act.
