Tanzania to Bring Home 669 Citizens From South Africa Amid Xenophobia Fears

Tanzania is preparing a phased voluntary repatriation programme for 669 of its citizens living in South Africa, with the first group scheduled to leave this week as concerns over the safety and future of foreign nationals continue to dominate debate in the country.

The Tanzanian High Commission in Pretoria said the programme followed requests from Tanzanians who wanted to return home and was being organised in cooperation with South African authorities. The first group, comprising 241 Tanzanians in Durban and surrounding parts of KwaZulu-Natal, is scheduled to travel to Tanzania on an Air Tanzania flight from King Shaka International Airport on August 26.

A second group of about 300 Tanzanians living in Cape Town is expected to return during the first week of September, while the remaining members of the 669-person programme will form a final group departing from Johannesburg at a date yet to be announced. Tanzanian officials have stressed that the exercise is voluntary and is intended to help citizens who have decided they would rather return home.

The programme will also cover Tanzanians who face documentation difficulties. According to the High Commission, applicants without valid passports, including those whose documents have expired or been lost, can receive Emergency Travel Documents. Children born in South Africa to Tanzanian parents are also eligible under specified conditions. People holding South African asylum-seeker certificates are being asked to remain at designated processing centres until their voluntary repatriation permits are completed.

Tanzanian High Commissioner James Bwana said President Samia Suluhu Hassan had directed the diplomatic mission to facilitate the return of citizens who wanted to come home. The government is providing the transport arrangements, with officials describing the programme as a way of allowing returning citizens to reunite with relatives and resume their social and economic lives in Tanzania.

The move comes against a backdrop of heightened tensions over migration in South Africa. Earlier this year, anti-immigration protests and incidents involving foreign nationals prompted several African governments to issue warnings or organise voluntary returns. Ghana, for example, flew an initial group of about 300 citizens home in May, while its government said more people were expected to return.

South African authorities have acknowledged the seriousness of the tensions but have drawn a distinction between enforcing immigration laws and xenophobic attacks. The government has said violence, intimidation and vigilantism against foreign nationals are unlawful, while insisting that immigration enforcement remains the responsibility of the state. By July, authorities said hundreds of people had been arrested in cases linked to unlawful conduct, intimidation and incitement surrounding migration-related tensions.

The Tanzanian programme should also be viewed against some misinformation that circulated earlier this year. Claims that President Hassan had ordered South Africans to leave Tanzania, closed borders or imposed retaliatory measures were investigated and found to be false. Tanzania's government said at the time that such claims were intended to damage relations between the two countries.

There is also an important distinction between Tanzania's current initiative and a formal mass expulsion. Tanzanian officials describe the exercise as voluntary repatriation, meaning the citizens themselves have requested assistance to return. South Africa's government has similarly distinguished voluntary repatriation from deportation, the latter being a formal legal process used against foreign nationals who are required to leave the country.

For Tanzania, the operation is both a consular responsibility and a sign of how seriously some citizens are viewing the situation in South Africa. For Pretoria, it presents another challenge as the government tries to balance public anger over irregular migration with its constitutional obligation to protect foreign nationals from discrimination and violence.

The broader significance reaches beyond the 669 people preparing to return. South Africa remains an important destination for migrants from across Africa, and the growing use of government-assisted voluntary returns shows how tensions over migration can quickly become a regional diplomatic issue. Tanzania's decision is therefore not simply about bringing citizens home; it is another measure of the pressure South Africa faces to convince its neighbours that it can enforce immigration laws without allowing legitimate concerns about migration to become a licence for xenophobia.