Fourteen Namibian citizens have returned home from neighbouring South Africa amid anti-foreigner sentiments with only a few possessions. 

Issued with emergency travel certificates, the group of returnees were voluntarily repatriated from Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape Province. 

On their arrival at the southern border post of Ariamsvlei on Friday evening, the returnees were subjected to health screening before being processed by the immigration officials. 

They were then transported to their final destinations in |Khomas, Otjozondjupa, Omusati, and Oshana regions. 

It is reported that twenty-four Namibian citizens initially registered for voluntary repatriation, but ten failed to turn up at the departure point. 

The returnees expressed happiness to be back in their home country but were concerned about what they termed an uncertain future. 

Most of the returnees were employed as fishermen and crop production workers in neighbouring South Africa. 

"I am very good. I am good. I am coming. Only suffering. I was working there, but from last year until this year, I never worked," said Nelson Barnabas.

Another returnee, Lukas Mongula, stressed, "I am a little bit disappointed because we youth are really struggling to make it in Namibia," Mongula said. "South Africa was our source of hope; we used to get odd jobs here and there to survive. I was in South Africa for years, and I was surviving well. We were hoping that the government would at least make reintegration plans for us, but they just brought us back home and are going to drop us with nothing. Now we have to go back to the streets and figure out how to survive."

The ||Kharas police head of operations, Deputy Commissioner Gottfried Kauhanda, described the repatriation as a success, noting that the entire process concluded without any disruptions or logistical challenges.

"From here we have to transport them according to the list until Omusati. So, those that would be jumping off the road – unfortunately, if he is a Namibian, we can't force him to be on the bus. If he wants to jump off in Keetmanshoop, that is up to him."

Another group of returnees to be repatriated from Cape Town, South Africa, was expected to arrive through the Noordoewer border post on Saturday.