South Africa deports 47 citizens

The friendship that existed between Nigeria and South Africa seems to have been thawed as the country which has remained a major trading partner and regional ally deported 47 Nigerians yesterday.

According to Nigeria Immigration Service sources, the deportees made up of 46 males and one female were disembarked at the cargo terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos from a chartered flight from Johannesburg.

After waiting for sometime, the deportees were allowed to leave the airport to their homes or other destinations within Nigeria. Some of the deportees who spoke with newsmen said the South African Authority has become antagonistic to Africans residing in that country and became very hostile with a regime of clampdowns and harassment.

The South Africa Authority they said was more hostile to African immigrants from Nigeria. The deportees noted that this attitude took a more aggressive tone immediately after the World Cup tournament, which was the first to be hosted by any African country.

"South Africans have always been hostile to Africans that live in their country while they fear the white people. It is worse with us Nigerians who they believe take their jobs away, so they have been harassing us for many years now and after the World Cup they started harassing us again and now they have deported us. I left everything I have laboured for years there," one of the deportees who refused to give his name said.

The deportee also said that they were treated like common criminals.

Two weeks ago there was report that a young Nigerian lady that lived and was studying in South Africa and returned to Nigeria to attend a wedding.

As she landed in Johannesburg she was stopped by Immigration at the airport and put on the next plane back to Nigeria.

The lady cried through the six hours flight to Lagos because she was a medical student in one of the universities in South Africa and she was to start her exams in the next two days before she was forced back to Nigeria.

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