Botswana - Migration

At least 50,000 Botswanans are working in South Africa at any particular time. In 1991, 21,468 South African residents were listed as born in Botswana. Botswana had some 500 refugees at the end of 1992, about 40% from South Africa. In 1998, the United Nations High Commisionerfor Refugees (UNHCR) had been planning to phase out its Botswana office by the end of the year. However, in October 1998 the influx of 2,500 asylum-seekers from the Caprivi region of Namibia provided them with an urgent new caseload. As of 1999, the repatriation plan to return the Namibian refugees had been temporarily halted, due to a deterioration of the situation in the Caprivi region. UNHCR was also working with the government to ensure that by the end of 1999 the naturalization of some 250 Angolan refugees would be completed. In 2000, the net migration rate was -0.6 per 1,000 population. There were 52,000 migrants living in Botswana in that year, including 3,600 refugees. The government views the immigration level as too high.