Zimbabwean nationals line up carrying their belongings as they wait to board a bus at a Department of Home Affairs Refugee Reception Centre while awaiting repatriation under an unofficial deadline set by citizen-led groups for undocumented foreign nationals to leave South Africa in Cape Town, June 30, 2026.
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.
