US deports scores of Zimbabwean migrants

The deportees were flown in on a chartered plane that also reportedly carried citizens of Ghana, Zambia, and Mozambique

A group of Zimbabwean nationals has arrived at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in the southern African country’s capital Harare on a chartered flight from the US after being deported by Washington.

With only the clothes on their backs, the group of men appeared visibly frustrated as they faced the reality of returning home involuntarily after spending years abroad. The chartered plane had reportedly dropped off Ghanaians and Zambian deportees. From Zimbabwe, it was heading to drop off Mozambicans deported from US.

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) filmed the arrival and interviewed some of the deportees. According to the broadcaster, the men had served prison sentences for various crimes in the United States before being declared undesirable and deported.

One deportee, Tendai Moyosvi, a trained chef, said he now plans to reintegrate into Zimbabwean society and start a business after serving a decade behind bars in the US. Others told ZBC they hoped to venture into farming.

Officials from the Ministry of Social Welfare were present at the airport, attempting to contact relatives of the returnees. However, one man, identified only as Mabugu, revealed he could not remember any family members, having left Zimbabwe as a nine-year-old. Now 30, he said he had also lost comprehension of his mother tongue.

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”I cannot speak Shona anymore, I don’t understand it. I forgot it. I was born here, in Masvingo. I grew up in the United States, in Pennsylvania,” Mabhugu told ZBC.

This is not the first time Zimbabweans have been deported from the United States. In recent years, US immigration authorities have confirmed that hundreds of Zimbabweans were on the removal docket — targeted for deportation due to immigration violations or criminal records.

In 2023, Zimbabwe’s government confirmed it had received deportees from the US and the UK, and President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration publicly stated that it “respects other countries’ immigration laws.”

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Reports at the time suggested that more than 500 Zimbabweans were earmarked for removal from the US, although only smaller groups have been returned in phases.

The latest arrivals highlight the ongoing challenges of deportations, including reintegration into Zimbabwean society and support for returnees who, like Mabhugu, have spent most of their lives abroad.

First published by IOL