Ghana repatriation flight halted, 10 of 300 legally in SA

by Chumasande Matiwane

It has come to light that only 10 of the 300 Ghanaian nationals who applied for repatriation to their country were legally present in South Africa.

This comes as the West African country’s High Commission has now confirmed that fewer than 300 of its citizens have boarded the repatriation flight from SA to Accra.

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Lack of paperwork halts Ghana repatriation

The Ghanaians who were processed for repatriation arrived at OR Tambo International Airport this morning, 27 May 2026, hoping to leave the country. They decided to leave South Africa due to the growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the country.

But in a shocking turn of events, some of the Ghanaians have been turned away because their papers were not in order, due to being in the country illegally.

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Those who didn’t leave today will be given another opportunity to travel on the second repatriation flight later this week. The Ghanaians are departing as protests against undocumented migrants continue in South Africa.

Speaking to the SABC, Home Affairs’ Immigration and Law Enforcement Head Stephen van Neel said, “Of the three hundred individuals that were on that list we only found 10 of them being legal in the country, the rest of them are illegal without documents or actually not complying or have overstayed but there are some sanctions that needs to be taken and the department of Home Affairs will indeed make that those are implemented.”

Kaya News spoke with Ghana’s ambassador to South Africa, Benjamin Quashie, who said, “They halted repatriation is a regrettable miscommunication. He says the repatriation will continue on Sunday.”

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