Zimbabweans' reluctant homecoming

By Barnaby Phillips BBC correspondent in Johannesburg

Thousands of people are being deported from South Africa

One thousand people are riding on a train that nobody wanted to catch.

The passengers have few possessions and even less hope, as they set off on the long journey from Johannesburg up to the Zimbabwean border.

They are just a tiny number of the millions of Zimbabweans who have poured into South Africa in recent years.

They fled Zimbabwe, and its economic collapse, hoping to make a living in South Africa

But caught without papers, they have ended up in detention as illegal immigrants.

Now they are being sent back home to the very country they ran away from in desperation.

The South African authorities, struggling to cope with this huge wave of illegal immigration, are sending about 2,000 Zimbabweans home by train each month.

Dramatic getaways

One man spoke to me, telling me his story but asking that I didn't reveal his real name. So let's call him "William".

He left Zimbabwe two years ago, fleeing political violence and economic ruin.

"William" will probably try to return to South Africa

"I don't like returning to Zimbabwe, there are no jobs. I'm going back to suffer, so I think I will try and come back to South Africa."

And the police know that many of these people will escape, given half a chance; so there are officers in every carriage.

But the guards cannot stop dramatic getaways, such as the men prepared to leap from a moving train, risking their lives not to go back to Zimbabwe.

Some do get away but others are not so lucky. If they are caught, they are forced back on board the train.

The train rumbles on through the night, many of its passengers so exhausted that they carry on sleeping long after dawn.

Singing is one of the few ways in which they try to keep their morale up.

Most of the police officers guarding them are full of sympathy for the Zimbabweans, including Officer Philip Makhubela.

"I treat them with honour and dignity. These are my brothers. I love them all."

Despite a journey of more than 16 hours, there are no celebrations as the travellers approach their home country.

They disembark at the town of Messina. It is the end of the line in more ways than one.

William is as apprehensive as everyone else as he is ordered onto a bus for the last few miles up to the border, and there, through customs, back to Zimbabwe.

It is a homecoming with no ceremony, to a land of hunger and oppression.