Zimbabweans return home from South Africa amid anti-immigrant tensions

Zimbabweans fleeing xenophobic violence and threats in South Africa arrived at a reception centre in the border town of Beitbridge, Zimbabwe.

Some returnees described being assaulted, robbed and forced from their homes and jobs, while aid workers provided medical care and transport to their final destinations.

Zimbabwe's government said Tuesday it had helped nearly 21,300 of its citizens to return from South Africa in just over five weeks as pressure mounted on undocumented migrants to leave.

More than 56,800 others had made their own way back across the porous border in that time, Information Minister Soda Zhemu said at a post-cabinet briefing.

Foreign nationals from a host of African countries, including Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda and Zimbabwe, have for weeks been leaving South Africa through government-assisted programmes.

The exodus began weeks ago as fringe South African groups stepped up demands for undocumented migrants to leave by June 30 in a campaign that saw violent protests and clashes in which at least four foreign nationals were killed.

"To date, approximately 21,291 Zimbabwean nationals have been repatriated through government-assisted arrangements since the commencement of the exercise on May 26," Zhemu said.

More than 56,830 returned "independently through self-repatriation mechanisms during the same period", Zhemu said, without giving details of how they came home.

Zimbabwe and South Africa share a busy border that sees large numbers of crossings both ways daily, many of them reportedly clandestine and unregistered.