Hundreds of Ghanaians hoping to return home this weekend will have to wait a little longer after the Ghana High Commission confirmed to Sunday World that the next repatriation flight was postponed until next week.
The flight had been scheduled to depart on Sunday, but officials are verifying prospective passengers before they can be cleared for travel.
Sources familiar with the process told Sunday World that the verification exercise had proved to be an arduous task, with officials working through hundreds of cases involving expired documentation, missing paperwork and immigration-related issues.
The urgency of the exercise was evident during Sunday World’s visit by to the Ghana High Commission in Pretoria on Friday. Despite diplomatic missions typically operating on reduced schedules over weekends, officials were preparing to continue processing applicants to complete the outstanding verifications before the next flight departs.
Even from outside the property, it was clear something unusual was taking place.
Groups of Ghanaian nationals waited throughout the grounds. Some sat in the courtyard just outside the commission. Small groups spoke among themselves while officials moved in and out of the building.
Inside, officials from South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs were working alongside High Commission staff to verify the identities and documentation of those hoping to secure a place on the next flight.
The goal is to resolve paperwork challenges before passengers reach the airport, avoiding the scenes that unfolded during the previous repatriation effort.
But amid the administrative preparations, the human cost of the repatriation process was impossible to ignore.
Conversations overheard in waiting areas revealed the abrupt uprooting of lives. Some spoke about businesses they had to abandon. Others worried about children who had grown up in South Africa.
Many discussed the prospect of returning to a country they had not lived in for years.
Aman described the mood among those waiting as a mixture of uncertainty and grief. People were not simply arranging travel home, he said. They were packing up entire lives.
The emotional strain was visible throughout the day.
After meeting a group of officials, a woman emerged from a meeting visibly distressed. Tears streamed down her face as she walked through the reception area carrying a baby on her back.
Moments later, she stumbled on a step and fell. Those nearby rushed to help her.
“It is stressful for everyone,” one of the men waiting nearby said quietly.
The intensive verification process follows chaotic scenes at OR Tambo International Airport on Tuesday when hundreds of Ghanaians gathered to board a chartered Ethiopian Airlines flight home.
The turnout was dramatically different from an earlier repatriation initiative, when a chartered aircraft had reportedly been arranged but only one person arrived to take up the offer.
However, this week, more people arrived than the aircraft had seats for, creating significant challenges for officials responsible for processing passengers.
According to sources familiar with the operation, many people arrived at the airport without having registered with the Ghana High Commission to be included on the flight.
Long queues quickly formed as officials attempted to determine who was eligible to travel.
Hundreds of passengers were eventually processed for departure; only about 10 were in possession of valid and complete documentation.
Most required some form of verification because their documents were expired, incomplete or unavailable.
As a result, officials were forced to conduct extensive checks to establish identities, citizenship and immigration histories before allowing passengers to leave the country.
According to a mole, South Africa’s immigration laws further complicated the situation.
Foreign nationals who overstay their visas could be declared undesirable when they depart the country, resulting in restrictions on re-entry for periods ranging from one to five years, depending on the circumstances of the overstay.
Sources said the sheer volume of undocumented or improperly documented travellers had contributed to delays and frustrations during the operation.
- The Ghana High Commission postponed the next repatriation flight from South Africa until next week due to ongoing verification of prospective passengers' documents.
- Verification is complex, involving hundreds of cases with expired or missing paperwork and immigration issues, requiring officials and South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs to work intensively.
- The delay aims to prevent chaotic scenes like those at OR Tambo Airport, where more Ghanaians showed up than available seats and most lacked valid documentation.
- The repatriation process has taken an emotional toll on individuals uprooted from their lives, facing uncertainty and grief about returning to Ghana after years abroad.
- South Africa’s strict immigration laws on overstaying visas add complications, potentially restricting travelers’ future re-entry and contributing to the extensive verification efforts.
