South Africa has processed more than 15,000 Malawian nationals to exit the country ahead of next week’s anti-immigration marches that many fear could turn violent, the justice minister said Friday, with thousands more awaiting clearance in makeshift encampments.

Citizen-led groups have issued an unofficial June 30 deadline for undocumented foreign nationals to leave the country and called nationwide marches, raising fears of renewed xenophobic violence.

“To date, a total of 15,162 Malawian nationals have been processed for deportation and repatriation, and more are still undergoing the verification process,” said Minister of Justice Mmamoloko Kubayi.

Living conditions in parts of southeastern KwaZulu-Natal province, where Malawians had gathered for weeks, had become “untenable”, she said.

Growing security fears after businesses were looted and foreigners targeted have forced several countries, including Malawi, Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to offer voluntary repatriations for their nationals.

South Africa’s Border Management Authority said it processed 8,200 foreign nationals for repatriation between June 12 and 24 at the Beitbridge border post with Zimbabwe.

It said 6,709 Malawian nationals were transported in 112 buses and 1,521 Zimbabwean nationals in 26 buses.

“This brings the total number of repatriated foreign nationals processed at Beitbridge only during this period to 8,230 persons,” it said.

South Africa has been on edge following weeks of sometimes violent xenophobic unrest that has left at least three people dead, according to official sources.

Mozambican authorities put the toll among their nationals at five. Minister Kubayi said two were killed in the unrest, while three died in a car accident, and another Mozambican national was killed in an altercation at an entertainment venue.

The six have been repatriated, she said.

A Malawian national was also killed during a march in Pietermaritzburg, Kubayi said, adding that the body had not yet been repatriated.

International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola said concerns had been raised over groups that “move from house to house enforcing the law”, describing it as “problematic”.

The latest tensions come ahead of local government elections scheduled for November 4.

Past flare-ups of violence targeting undocumented foreign nationals have been deadly, with 62 people killed in riots in 2008.

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