Government to repatriate 400 stranded Malawians from South Africa

Malawi government is mobilizing resources to repatriate about 400 Malawians who are stranded in Durban, South Africa, following xenophobic attacks, government spokesperson, Kondwani Nankhumwa has told the local media on Monday.

Nankhumwa said some of the Malawians were injured and that many of them had lost everything.

"The figure has been rising because the situation is really tense," said the Malawi Government spokesperson. "As of Sunday morning about 360 Malawians were stranded and they have lost everything they had, including their travel documents."

He said Malawi embassy in South Africa was in touch with the South African government to facilitate processing of temporary travel documents for those who had lost their passports.

The government spokesperson added that Malawi Foreign Affairs and International cooperation officials were on the ground to bring back the trapped Malawians by the end of the week.

The anti-immigrant attacks in Durban followed comments allegedly made by King Goodwill Zwelithini at the end of March that all foreign nationals should be deported from South Africa to create economic power to South Africans.

But the king, according to media reports, has denied having made the remarks and he has since described the xenophobic attacks as an act that is "taking our continent backwards".

During the 2008 xenophobic attacks in South Africa, Malawi government repatriated about 1,000 Malawians some of whom later sneaked back in pursuit of green pasture.