WIRE — The government has deployed more buses to speed up the repatriation of Malawians who are stranded in South Africa. This is happening at a time the authorities are moving to clear hundreds of citizens who have been sleeping outside the Malawi Consulate in the Rainbow Nation while waiting to return home. The Daily Times understands that nine buses were assigned to transport the stranded Malawians from the consulate in Johannesburg. An official at the Malawi Consulate, Rivonia Pillay, said the first bus departed with 60 passengers, while the number of people on the remaining eight buses would vary. "The first bus is carrying 60 passengers. The other buses will be carrying different numbers of people and, so, we cannot say exactly how many passengers each of them will have," Pillay said. The latest repatriation exercise comes amid an influx of Malawians who are seeking the government's assistance to return home, with many spending several days sleeping outside the consulate. Chairperson for Pretoria-based anti-human trafficking organisation Fula Africa, Charles Ephraim Luhanga, welcomed the government's move. He said Fula Africa had been working with affected migrants by providing humanitarian support and advocating for their welfare. "Most of the returnees are from Thyolo, Machinga and Balaka [districts]," Luhanga said The latest exercise adds to the government's ongoing repatriation programme under which more than 30,000 Malawians have, so far, been assisted to return home from South Africa following economic hardships, loss of employment and other challenges that have left many people unable to support themselves abroad.
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