“I left my wife and twins behind” — Richard recounts painful decision to flee South Africa after 15 years and uncertainty over seeing his family again

• Nigerian businessman Richard Itoro fled South Africa amid anti-migrant protests, leaving behind his wife and twin children.

• He said he built a life in South Africa over 15 years, including a home and car dealership business, before fear forced him to leave.

• Itoro said his legal status did not stop harassment against him and his wife.

• The situation has heightened diplomatic tensions between South Africa and other African countries over the treatment of migrants.

Nigerian businessman Richard Itoro is unsure when he will see his twin children again after he was forced to leave South Africa amid rising xenophobic attacks.

The 47-year-old left behind his wife, children, home and car dealership business in Johannesburg after fearing for his safety as protests targeting migrants intensified across South Africa.

Itoro was among thousands of foreigners who left the country through voluntary repatriation flights organised for migrants seeking to return to their home countries.

For more than 15 years, South Africa had been home for Itoro. He built a business, bought a house and created a family with his South African wife.

But he said growing hostility towards migrants made him feel unsafe and forced him to make a painful decision: leaving behind the life he had built.

“It was painful for me to leave the person who's my best friend,” Itoro told the BBC, fighting back tears as he recalled saying goodbye to his wife.

According to him, the harassment did not only affect him but also his wife, who faced intimidation because of her marriage to a Nigerian.

He said neighbours told his wife: “You're married to a Nigerian. Those of you who are married to Nigerians we are supposed to arrest you people. You guys betrayed us. Go and leave the country with your husband and don't be here.”

Itoro said he struggled to understand why his family became targets. “My family was just a small family, which was beautiful and peaceful. I had no issues with anybody,” he said.

As the pressure increased, he decided leaving was safer than remaining in an environment where he feared for his life. “If I go home and start all over again, it's better than being here, being harassed, being scared for my life,” he said.

However, his departure came with another painful reality — he could not take his wife and children with him.

Itoro said Nigerian authorities did not allow his South African wife and children to travel with him on the repatriation flight.

He described leaving them behind as an experience similar to watching someone take the final helicopter flight out of a city under siege.

“I wish I could have just begged the people from the embassy and said: ‘This is my wife, I can't leave her behind and my kids,’ but I couldn't,” he said.

The anti-migrant protests were driven largely by groups calling for undocumented foreigners to leave South Africa. Some campaigners argued that migrants were contributing to unemployment and putting pressure on resources.

South Africa’s Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie, who leads one of the parties in the coalition government, told the BBC that the country remained open to migrants who entered legally.

“We say South Africa is open to our brothers on the continent but come here legitimately. Come with your papers,” he said.

However, Itoro said having legal status did not protect him from hostility. He showed the BBC a document he said proved he had the right to remain in South Africa.

Nigeria’s government also said some citizens with valid documents had faced attacks.

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Sola Enikanolaiye, said Nigerians with legitimate papers had still been targeted.

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The situation has increased diplomatic tensions between South Africa and other African countries, with officials questioning how migrants from across the continent are being treated.

Itoro is now back in Lagos, separated from his family but hoping they will reunite soon. “It’s not easy. But we talk every day, and I’m broken,” he said.

“There is hope, because my wife is going to join me very soon, as soon as God lifts me up. But it was heartbreaking, and that’s how I felt: like I lost everything.”