By Darlington Onedibe
Hundreds of Nigerian citizens awaiting repatriation staged a protest at the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria on Monday, June 22, expressing deep frustration over prolonged delays in scheduled evacuation flights.
​The demonstration comes amid a race against time as a June 30 deadline approaches, set by local anti-migrant groups demanding all undocumented foreign nationals leave South Africa.
​Chanting and carrying placards, the demonstrators gathered outside the diplomatic mission, citing mounting safety concerns and slow logistical processing. Many claimed they have been forced to sleep in makeshift conditions near the embassy, vulnerable to the very hostility they are trying to escape.
​”Our lives are in danger here, and we have done everything required to register,” said one stranded national at the scene. “The government promised to bring us home, but the delays are leaving us exposed. We need the planes now.”
While the Nigerian government successfully airlifted a first batch of 258 evacuees to Lagos via Air Peace earlier this month, over 1,000 citizens remain registered and awaiting transport.
​African nations including Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Malawi have also initiated swift air and road evacuations to pull their citizens out of volatile areas before the end-of-the-month deadline.
​Diplomatic sources indicate that the holdup stems from a combination of complex bureaucratic clearance bottlenecks with South African immigration authorities and coordinating multi-leg charter flights.
​The Nigerian High Commission has urged calm, assuring those stranded that the Federal Government’s crisis monitoring unit—ordered by President Bola Tinubu—is actively working to resolve the gridlock and clear the remaining four scheduled evacuation batches as safely and quickly as possible.
