Repatriated Zimbabweans Hit with Five-Year South Africa Re-Entry Ban

Hundreds of Zimbabwean nationals who voluntarily left South Africa under a repatriation programme were shocked to discover they will be declared undesirable and barred from re-entering the country for up to five years. The Cape Times reported that the Department of Home Affairs' processing center in Epping has been applying the ban since Sunday, blindsiding returnees who believed they were simply accepting a free ride home. The punitive administrative measure effectively traps vulnerable migrants between xenophobic violence and permanent economic exile.