As thousands of migrants leave South Africa following weeks of anti-immigrant unrest, a temporary facility near Beitbridge has become the country's final processing point, where officials and aid agencies are working around the clock to manage the flow of people heading home.

"Musina was a bad place. No food. No toilet. No water," says Abrahim Kandulu, a Malawian national waiting to return home.

Before the temporary repatriation centre opened about 20km outside Musina on 1 July, Kandulu had been sleeping in the town with hundreds of other migrants who had little or no shelter.

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"Here it is better. At least we sleep properly. Before, we slept sitting down. Most people were crying."

Kandulu is one of thousands of migrants who have passed through the centre after weeks of anti-immigrant unrest.

As temporary repatriation centres in other parts of the country closed, migrants from across South Africa were transported here. The facility, located just kilometres from the Beitbridge border with Zimbabwe, became the country's central processing point, where immigration officials verified identities, took fingerprints and issued the documents required for people to leave South Africa.

Humanitarian organisations scramble to provide food, drinking water and other essentials to people who, in many cases, have lost almost everything.

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Established on government-owned farmland, the temporary repatriation centre consists of large canvas...