South Africa sends refugees back to Zimbabwe

The aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said South Africa has deported about 450 Zimbabweans from a detention centre on the border.

The international medical aid group said one of its teams visited the centre on Friday, the day a presidential run-off was held in Zimbabwe.

It said aid workers found more than 450 men, women and children at the centre who said they had crossed the border in recent days, fleeing instability and political violence.

Medecins Sans Frontieres said in a statement today that when the aid team returned in the morning with supplies for the Zimbabweans, they found the centre empty.

The aid group says South African authorities confirmed that all the Zimbabweans in the centre had been transported back across the border.