The Border Management Authority says it recorded just over 1.2 million travellers at South Africa’s ports of entry during the Easter holiday period, marking a 21% increase in cross-border movement compared to the same period last year.
BMA Commissioner Michael Masiapato said authorities also intercepted and apprehended travellers attempting to enter or exit the country illegally during the same period.
“A total of 4 000 intercepted and apprehended while attempting to enter the city. Over this period of 10 days, in this Easter period, a total of 4 763 travellers were intercepted and apprehended while attempting to either enter or exit South Africa illegally. Out of these 4 763 intercepted travellers, about 3 070 were undocumented persons, 998 were undesirable, 595 were found to be inadmissible into the country for various reasons,” said Masiapato.
He said some of those intercepted were found with fraudulent documents or failed to meet health and travel requirements.
“In this instance, we talk about some people who were in possession of fraudulent visas, or they just failed to produce yellow fever certificates while coming from yellow fever infested jurisdictions, or they were just in possession of invalid travel documents. All travellers intercepted without documents were fingerprinted. As always the case, we had to declare them as undesirables for them to be denied from reentering the country for the next 5 years and they were effectively deported to their respective countries in accordance with the provisions of the Immigration Act,” he said.
Masiapato added that most of those intercepted were Basotho nationals, followed by Mozambicans, Zimbabweans, Saudi nationals, Malawians and Ethiopians.
“As in the previous period, the majority of the intercepted individuals were Basotho nationals, followed by Mozambicans, Zimbabweans, Saudi nationals, Malawians, as well as the Ethiopians. Notably, the total number of interceptions reflected a decrease when compared to the 6 253 recorded during the 2025 Easter period. This represents a reduction of approximately 24%, and this can be attributed to the deterrent effect of enhanced enforcement measures, including the deployment of drones, the continued arresting of the facilitators, the destruction of the makeshift boats and the removal of the anchors and airswell ropes used to facilitate illegal crossings or migration, particularly along the Limpopo as well as the Caledon rivers,” he said.
He said the operations targeted illegal crossing points along the Zimbabwe and Lesotho borders.
Saturday Star