South Africa has apologised for the deportation last week of 125
Nigerians over suspicions that their yellow fever certificates were
fake.
The action quickly turned into a diplomatic spat - with Nigeria refusing South Africans entry and the foreign minister branding Pretoria xenophobic.
The action quickly turned into a diplomatic spat - with Nigeria refusing South Africans entry and the foreign minister branding Pretoria xenophobic.
South Africa has rejected that claim - and promised new procedures to avoid a repeat of the "regrettable incident".
At one stage Nigerian carrier, Arik Air, suspended flights to South Africa.
Yellow fever is spread through infected mosquitoes and has a
wide array of symptoms from nausea and vomiting to kidney failure,
jaundice and bleeding.
According to the UN World Health Organization, about half
those who develop severe symptoms of the haemorrhagic illness and are
untreated die from the disease - about 30,000 people each year
worldwide.
'Regrettable incident'
"We wish to humbly apologise to them, and we have," South Africa's Deputy Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ibrahim said.
"We are apologising because we deported a number of people
who should not have been deported," Mr Ibrahim said - adding that he
does not expect an apology from Nigeria for the tit-for-tat deportations
of South African nationals.
He blamed airport authorities for what a joint statement with
Nigeria described as a "regrettable incident which the South African
government believes could have been handled better".
The Nigerians were turned away on 2 March because the yellow
fever certificates were not check properly, according to the deputy
minister.
South Africa is considering reopening a travel clinic at
Johannesburg's airport - so that travellers without a yellow fever
certificate can be vaccinated on arrival rather than deported.
And from now on, mass deportations will need the permission of foreign ministry officials, the deputy minister said.
On Tuesday, Olugbenga Ashiru, Nigeria's foreign minister, said the deportations was evidence of xenophobia.
"What you see playing out is what we call xenophobia by South
Africans against all Africans - not just Nigerians," AFP news agency
reported him as saying.
In 2008, South Africa saw a wave of xenophobic violence which
shocked the nation and shook up the world's view of the "rainbow
nation".
Mr Ibrahim said on Thursday that South Africa is not a xenophobic country.
The two countries say the yellow fever row will not undermine bilateral relations - and they are moving to strengthening them.
Nigeria is one of the biggest markets for South Africa's MTN
mobile phone operator, while retailer Shoprite and Standard Bank also
have profitable operations there.