Nigeria seeks compensation from South Africa over migrant exodus

Nigeria says it will seek compensation from South Africa for citizens who abandoned their homes, businesses and property after recent protests targeting undocumented migrants.

The Nigerian government said the matter would be raised with South Africa through diplomatic channels, while officials have begun documenting the losses suffered by affected citizens before making any formal claim.

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“We have not severed ties with South Africa, we are still engaging them at the highest level, we will sort those details using our usual diplomatic channels,” Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, foreign ministry spokesperson told the BBC.

Ebienfa said every compensation claim would first be verified before Nigeria formally presents its case to the South African government.

Alexander Ajayi, Nigeria’s Acting High Commissioner to South Africa, said authorities had asked returning citizens to carefully record all businesses and property they were forced to leave behind.

“I have asked all of those who have left South Africa to document very accurately those things they were leaving behind in terms of businesses, in terms of even cars, movable and immovable properties,” Ajayi said on local television.

The move follows weeks of protests in South Africa led by groups demanding tougher action against undocumented migrants. While most demonstrations were peaceful, there were isolated attacks on foreign nationals, prompting many migrants to flee out of fear.

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More than 600 Nigerians have already been repatriated, while hundreds more are waiting to return home. South African authorities maintain that those repatriated were living in the country illegally, a claim Nigeria disputes.

Among those preparing to leave is 32-year-old trader Oghodero Erejor Wilson, who said he had spent nearly a decade building a clothing business in Centurion, Gauteng province, only to abandon everything as tensions escalated.

“I am losing everything because of fear,” Wilson told the BBC. “I left everything in my house including clothes.”

Wilson, who is due to return to Nigeria on Friday, estimated that the goods left in his shop are worth more than 16,000 rand.

He acknowledged that his residency documents expired in 2021 and that he had been unable to renew them. Despite Nigeria’s push for compensation, he remains doubtful that any payment will come.

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“If the South African government can compensate it, it will be nice, but I know they won’t,” he said.

The protests have also affected migrants from other African countries. Around 25,000 foreign nationals are reported to have left South Africa in recent weeks after anti migrant groups demanded that undocumented foreigners leave the country by June 30.

South African police said about 900 people were arrested during Tuesday’s demonstrations, most of them for immigration related offences and looting.

The South African government has not yet publicly responded to Nigeria’s planned compensation request.