• •Al Jazeera reports a surge of Malawian nationals choosing to return home following recurring outbreaks of xenophobic violence in South Africa.
• •Returnees describe the abandonment of long-term livelihoods and physical assets due to the immediate threat to their personal safety.
• •The full scale of the displacement remains undocumented, as government repatriation data often lags behind the actual volume of individual border crossings.

Hundreds of Malawian nationals are returning home from South Africa, citing rising xenophobic unrest and the collapse of their economic prospects abroad. This displacement follows a long-standing pattern of migrant vulnerability in the region, where economic migrants from neighboring countries frequently become targets during domestic South African political shifts. While individuals recount harrowing experiences of fleeing violence, the South African government continues to face pressure to balance local employment demands with regional migration policies. Whether these returnees can reintegrate into the Malawian economy without long-term aid remains the primary challenge for the country's social welfare systems.