Over 600 Mozambicans to leave xenophobia-hit South Africa

Mozambican authorities on Wednesday said that over 600 of its nationals, who have been affected by the wave of xenophobic violence in South Africa over the last few weeks, are on their way back to the country.
The National Disasters Management Institute said that the group was expected to arrive in the country by Thursday morning, according to a Xinhua report.
The victims of xenophobia transported from South Africa by the Mozambican government will be accommodated at the Boane transit centre, about 30 km south of the Mozambican capital of Maputo, from where they will then be transported to their respective places of origin.
Seven people, including three Mozambicans have so far been killed in xenophobic violence in South Africa since it started more than a week ago.
The Mozambican High Commission in South Africa said that the situation had begun to return to normal, as the South African authorities started their crackdown on the xenophobia network.
South Africa on Tuesday deployed troops to anti-immigrant hotspots to quell the xenophobic violence, and four men linked to the murder of Mozambican Emmanuel Sithole in the Johannesburg township of Alexandra were arrested.
According to the Xinhua report, 107 Mozambicans who have already been transported to the Boane transit centre have been repatriated to their places of origin.
The new wave of violence began just days after Goodwill Zwelithini, king of the Zulus, the largest ethnic group in South Africa, ordered foreigners "to pack their bags and leave" the country.
Following his comments attacks against foreign nationals flared up in Durban city and some other towns in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province in March from where it spread to other parts of South Africa. Zwelithini subsequently sought to stop the violence.
The attacks were believed to have been undertaken by jobless South Africans who blame foreigners for taking their jobs away. The unemployment rate in the country is 24 percent, according to the BBC.
South Africa is home to about two million foreign nationals, including Indians, according to official data. But the number of immigrants could be much higher.
In 2008, 72 foreigners died as the victims of xenophobic attacks in suburban areas of South Africa.