South Africa wants Nigeria to pay for deportation of our citizens

South Africa just announced they will start charging Nigeria and other African countries for the cost of deporting their nationals who violate immigration laws. The Department of International Relations and Cooperation said they will bill governments for foreign nationals in their criminal detention facilities who have to be deported back. More than 100,000 undocumented migrants have been deported in the last two years alone, and they say the financial burden on the state is too heavy.

This comes after the first batch of 258 Nigerians was evacuated from South Africa and arrived in Lagos recently. Ghana also evacuated about 1,000 of its citizens. President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a national address that government agencies will intensify efforts to identify and deport undocumented foreign nationals. The authorities are calling it a matter of national sovereignty.

So now our own government has to pay for the privilege of taking back our people who went there to hustle. The same South Africa that benefits from Nigerian professionals and business owners. The same country where our people get attacked for being foreigners. Now they want to collect money for sending them back. When will we start demanding respect for our citizens abroad? Or is this just the price of japa gone wrong?