South Africa has closed its temporary repatriation centre in Musina after a sharp decline in the number of undocumented migrants requiring processing, with 48,948 foreign nationals having passed through the facility, the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration said Tuesday.
The Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration (IMC) said that 48,948 foreign nationals were processed at the Musina Temporary Repatriation Processing Centre in Limpopo before it closed in August.
Of those, 46,744, or 95.5%, were classified as border jumpers, while 2,204, or 4.5%, were recorded as having reported through a port of entry.
The centre was officially established on June 26 as a temporary intervention to manage increased migration pressures and facilitate the lawful, orderly and dignified processing of undocumented migrants requiring assisted repatriation.
It brought together the Department of Home Affairs, the Border Management Authority, the South African Police Service, national and local departments responsible for health and social development, and humanitarian organisations at a single processing site.
