Pretoria – South Africa deported 57,784 people in the 2025/26 financial year as the country’s Department of Home Affairs steps up its campaign against illegal immigration, figures that come amid growing tensions between South Africans and foreign nationals living in the country.
The number marks a sharp rise from 14,589 deportations recorded in the 2020/21 financial year, when the Covid-19 pandemic is believed to have weakened the state’s ability to carry out removals. However, the current figures still fall below the annual average of 67,000 deportations recorded between 2010 and 2019. At the peak in 2007, more than 300,000 people were deported in a single year.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber told Bloomberg TV last October that South Africa is “a neglected part of the global migration story” and that deporting undocumented people is critical to “protect social cohesion.” 
SA’s deportation surge
Deportations from SA have almost quadrupled in 5 years
Number of deportations per financial year
The financial year begins on 1 April and ends on 31 March
Those tensions have grown more visible in recent weeks, with the anti-immigration movement March and March staging protests in several cities across the country. Reports have emerged of immigrants being assaulted during those demonstrations. Among the movement’s demands are tighter immigration controls and the removal of undocumented foreign nationals.
The Department of Home Affairs has been running two key operations to address illegal immigration. Operation Siyasebenta, which translates to “we are working,” was launched in 2022 to crack down on undocumented workers. A separate joint operation with the police and the Department of Labour, called Operation Shanela, meaning “sweep clean,” targets various crimes including immigration related offences.
