More than 1 200 out of 1 841 Zimbabweans deported from South Africa through Beit Bridge Border Post for failing to regularise their stay in the country during the documentation exercise, had reportedly trooped back illegally.

Investigations by Limpopo Mirror reveal that since the deportations started on October 12, about two thirds of the deportees turned down any form of assistance from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). An official, who declined to be named, said most deportees were released from IOM reception and support centre after convincing administrators that they had enough money to travel to their rural homes.

"However, they find their way back to South Africa through illegal crossing points, while others do so under the nose of security personnel manning both sides of the South African and Zimbabwean borders," said the official.

Since the deportations started, the Zimbabwean department of immigration at Beit Bridge Border Post has been receiving an average of 80 people a day on less busy days. The deportations marked the end of an amnesty for illegal Zimbabwean immigrants staying in South Africa that ran from May 5, 2009 to July 31, 2011.

Over 275 000 applications from Zimbabweans wishing to regularise their stay in the country have been processed, while some others were turned down and some are pending. The first batch of 261 deportees was brought in from Johannesburg in four buses under the escort of Home Affairs officials.

The largest number of deportations so far was recorded on Tuesday last week, when 367 Zimbabweans were rounded up from Limpopo and Gauteng. The record high figure of Zimbabweans deported from South Africa was on February 13 in 2007, when 1 600 people were brought in a convoy of 16 luxury buses.

Zimbabwe’s assistant regional immigration manager in charge of compliance and enforcement, Mr Francis Mabika, said most people repatriated were from Gauteng province's Lindelani Holding Centre. Gauteng deports people twice per week.

"We have received a total of 1 841 deportations from South Africa between October 12 and 28. The highest number we processed was on Tuesday last week, when we had 367 people. A total of 285 came from Lindelani Holding Centre, while another 90 were from Limpopo Province.

"These people were rounded up (and) thoroughly vetted before being repatriated back to Zimbabwe. They are being handed over to us at the I OM reception centre in Beit Bridge, where we also vet them to verify their nationalities," he said.

At the IOM centre, the deportees are offered accommodation, food, medication and transport to proceed to their respective homes, while those who opt to go home using their own means are released and most of them resort to crossing back to South Africa illegally through undesignated entry points along the Limpopo River.

The IOM reception centre has the capacity to accommodate 600 people at any given time. Mabika warned people against irregular migration as they risked their lives and prosecution.