•    The Department of Home Affairs continues its clampdown on undocumented foreign nationals.
•    More than 400 000 undocumented foreigners have been processed and just under 100 000 have been arrested.
•    The DHA is also looking at plans to improve efficiency at the country's ports of entry.

In just over three years, nearly half a million foreign nationals who were in the country illegally were apprehended by authorities, further compounding the overcrowding problems in South Africa's correctional facilities.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber revealed that thousands of undocumented and illegal persons were apprehended across South Africa over a period of about 37 months.

Responding to a written parliamentary question from ActionSA MP Lerato Ngobeni, Schreiber said a total of 410 000 undocumented foreigners have been apprehended.
Those who were apprehended are classified as inadmissible, undesirable, and undocumented.

Between 14 July 2022 and 31 March 2023, a total of 326 183 undocumented foreigners were processed by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) – of that 94 490 were arrested.

In the period between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, 1 016 undocumented foreigners were arrested out of 47 083 who were processed.

From 1 April 2024 to June 2024, there were a total of 31 873 undocumented foreigners processed. Of that, 303 were arrested.
The DHA processed 5 193 undocumented foreigners between 1 July 2024 and September last year. Only 573 of those were arrested.

On Wednesday, News24 reported that the growing number of incarcerated foreign nationals is adding to the overcrowding crisis in South Africa's correctional facilities.
This was according to Anthea Ramolobeng, chairperson of the parliamentary committee overseeing the Department of Correctional Services.

A total of 400 out of the 525 male inmates at the Baviaanspoort youth facility are foreign nationals, said Ramolobeng.
The country's prisons currently house around 156 000 inmates, which is way more than the 105 474 approved bed spaces. This means there is an alarming 48% rate of overcrowding.

By the end of March 2024, there were 22 614 foreign inmates, 690 of whom were serving life sentences.
Schreiber said a total of 672 Border Law Enforcement Officers are deployed along the border of the country at "vulnerable areas".

There are 585 deployed at vulnerable areas along the land borders; 56 at maritime border areas and 31 at OR Tambo International Airport.

"Through the allocation from the Crime Asset Recovery Account [CARA], the Border Management Authority [BMA] in collaboration with Armaments Corporation of South Africa [ARMSCOR], is in a process to procure specialised equipment such as drones, body cameras, maritime inshore patrol vessels and other advanced technological capability to maximise the BMA’s capacitation to ensure that we are able to realise our key mandates of facilitating legitimate movement of goods and people," Schreiber said.

Through the Border Security Risk and Information Committee, the BMA created a platform for regular engagement with the State Security Agency, SAPS Crime Intelligence, SANDF Defence Intelligence Division, Financial Intelligence Centre and SARS Customs Targeting Unit.