The Federal Government has denied receiving any request from South Africa for reimbursement of costs used to repatriate Nigerians and other migrants from the country.
Naija News reports that the clarification comes after South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs told Parliament on Tuesday that it had written to Nigeria, Malawi and Ethiopia to seek a refund for part of the R292.77 million (approximately $18 million) spent on accommodating and transporting deportees and voluntary returnees.
Speaking to Vanguard, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, stated that they have not received any document concerning the matter.
Kimiebi Ebienfa said: “It is not true, we have not received any document to that effect.”
Asked whether the South African government has responded to Nigeria’s request for compensation for Nigerians forced to leave the country, he said no response has been received yet.
Corroborating him, Nigeria’s Consul General in South Africa, Ninikanwa Okey-Uche, said no such demand for reimbursement had been communicated to the Nigerian mission in Pretoria.
Home Affairs Director-General Tommy Makhode told the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs that the department spent R292 million on the operation, far above its R60 million budgetary allocation for deportations this year.
He described the expenditure as unforeseen, unavoidabl,e and an unfunded mandate, stressing that repatriations were not provided for in the existing legislative framework.
“We have also written to the governments of Malawi, and, of course, the embassies of Nigeria and Ethiopia to request for reimbursements of these costs through the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, DIRCO
“We are expecting responses from those governments,” Makhode said.
According to him, the bulk of the spending went to hiring buses to transport migrants, running temporary repatriation centres, and paying staff overtime. Some municipalities and government departments that assisted with the operation are also seeking reimbursement from Home Affairs.
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