Thousands of foreign nationals leave South Africa ahead of June 30 'deadline'

Anti-immigrant groups in South Africa have set a June 30 "deadline" for undocumented immigrants to leave the country, planning widespread demonstrations on that date and threatening a “national shutdown” if the government does not take significant action on immigration.

Anti-foreigner sentiment has been on the rise in recent months, with protests in several major cities across the country.

Read more‘Chased like dogs’: Anti-migrant mobs in South Africa force foreigners to flee

Three people, including a Malawian man and two Mozambican nationals, were killed during recent anti-immigration protests in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape provinces.

South African Police Services launched a special $36 million operation ahead of the new round of protests, with acting Minister of Police Firoz Cachalia saying police would not tolerate violence or lawlessness.

The government announced measures in early June to combat undocumented nationals following pressure from anti-immigrant groups, notably vowing to crack down on violations of the Immigration Act and prioritising border security. The government is also looking to update the immigration system with modern technology while working in concert with other African countries.

Read more‘It’s organised intimidation’: New wave of anti-migrant violence sweeps South Africa

Faced with the threat of violence, foreigners are banding together. FRANCE 24 spoke to two refugees who were forced to flee their homes in early June following anti-immigrant protests in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. The men gathered outside the Home Affairs offices along with hundreds of other foreign nationals, where they remained on the pavement for weeks, awaiting repatriation to their countries after decades in South Africa.

'You will die together'

Marjolain Mabako stands on a sidewalk covered with the personal items of more than 550 people, including blankets, water containers and luggage. Women and children sit close to the few belongings they could carry when they hurriedly left their homes.

“People have abandoned their homes,” Mabako recounted, the day after protesters entered their homes and threatened them: "You must go back home, you must leave … You cannot set foot here anymore.”

Mabako has refugee status in South Africa, where he has lived for more than 22 years. He has carved out a life here as his country of origin, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has been embroiled in conflict for decades. Since he arrived at the Home Affairs office more than a month ago, many more people have arrived.

“When you become a victim, you flee and come here to be together with the others. If it is necessary to die, you will die together,” said Mabako. He said he cannot go back to his home or work.

According to Mabako, a proud barber, protesters ransacked homes and places of work. “They broke everything. That is why nobody has anything left. They stole, they beat people,” he said. On the day we visited the Home Affairs office, a foreign national was assaulted and injured at the local market.

Christian Tchizungu is from the city of Bukavu, now held by Rwanda-backed rebels, in eastern DRC. He too holds refugee status in South Africa, but he says he does not see a future here anymore. Tchizungu and his wife managed a beauty salon in a shopping centre in Durban and have been in the country for 20 years. After they were forced out of the salon and onto the pavement with fellow refugees, Tchizungu said it might now be more difficult here in South Africa than back home.

”The situation is harder than at home. It becomes too much … It is awful. It is unliveable,” says Tchizungu. He says they don’t have much of a choice but to go back to the DRC. Tchizungu believes the threats from protesters demanding that all foreigners leave before June 30.

“From [June] 15th onward, they are going to kill us," Tchizungu says. "I assure you – they are going to do it.”

'Between the hammer and the anvil'

The South African government has intensified its immigration enforcement efforts in recent years. Cumulatively, deportations rose 46 percent over the past two financial years, from just shy of 58,000 in 2024-2025 to 109,344 as of March 31, 2026.

Following the recent anti-immigrant protests, the government processed more than 8,000 foreign nationals for repatriation at the Beitbridge border post in less than two weeks.

For people like Mabako, leaving South Africa would mean not only leaving behind his livelihood but also returning to a country embroiled in conflict. A Ghanaian colleague recently returned, “but we remained because we have nowhere to go", he said.

"At home there is war. Here, things are not going well either. We are between the hammer and the anvil.”

Tchizungu also doesn’t know where he should take his family. “Every time I think that back home there is war, and that here I am still going through this kind of situation, I ask myself where I am going to go… Even here, they don't want us… So it becomes a bit difficult.”

'Leave now'

In an online video, Zulu activist Nkosikhona “Phakel’umthakathi” Ndabandaba tells a Congolese national that “June 30 is the deadline, but it is not that you have to leave on June 30. Leave now.”

The anti-immigration group March and March has gained momentum in recent months, leading multiple protests ahead of the Tuesday deadline.

An estimated 20 anti-immigration groups, including March and March, have reaffirmed their participation in nationwide protests to coincide with the June 30 deadline.

South Africa has has seen this kind of unrest before. In May 2008, xenophobic violence resulted in 62 deaths across the country, while thousands of foreign nationals were internally displaced or fled the country. Twenty-one of the people killed were South Africans mistaken for foreign nationals.

Xenowatch, a platform monitoring xenophobic violence since 1994, recorded a sharp increase in xenophobic incidents after the events of 2008. Of the 698 xenophobic-related deaths it has recorded since its founding, 570 were logged between 2008 and June of this year.

Organisations like Lawyers for Human Rights and Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia have expressed their concern following the recent spate of violent protests.

“What is of concern is the rise of vigilante and anti-rights groups. And this is resulting in attacks on foreign nationals through racial profiling,” said Sharon Ekambaram, who heads the Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights.

Ekambaram said members of her group “are very concerned” about the violence taking place against documented and undocumented foreign nationals, noting that many of the victims are not illegal migrants but actually have legal refugee status in South Africa.

Passing the buck

Tensions between anti-immigration groups and foreign nationals are fuelled by South Africa’s high unemployment rates, poor social services, corruption and anger at the government’s failure to grow the economy. Unsurprisingly, anti-immigration figures blame foreign nationals for stealing jobs, overcrowding schools and collapsing the health system. However, according to the most recent South African Census (2022), migrants only make up 4.1 percent of the people living in South Africa.

Ekambaram warned against this type of rhetoric, which is also often used by political parties. With local elections set for later this year, she said, “political parties ramp up the scapegoating of migrants, blaming them for social ills in South Africa and diverting attention away from the corruption and mismanagement that is stealing public funds meant for investment in improving the quality of life of the majority of working-class people in South Africa”.

With the June 30 deadline imminent, the situation is increasingly tense.

Every day, hundreds of refugees and asylum-seekers are seeking legal assistance at their walk-in law clinic, many of whom are traumatised, Ekambaram said.

“They are going into hiding, in fear that they will be hunted down and risk losing their lives.”

“This level of inhumanity against our fellow Black brothers and sisters from the African continent is a serious stain on South Africa,” said Ekambaram, who believes that South Africa should be a “beacon of hope to the world” with respect to human rights.