Cape Town - Hundreds of vulnerable refugees who have been living in a huge marquee in Paint City, Bellville in appalling conditions for nearly three years, say they have suffered enough and are desperate to leave South Africa.
Refugees embarked on protests in the city centre in 2019 where they camped outside the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) offices and occupied the Central Methodist Church, demanding that the UNHCR help them leave the country because of xenophobic violence.
They were then moved to a newly identified site in Bellville to curb the spread of Covid-19 at the peak of the pandemic in 2020.
Around 500 refugees now occupy a huge marquee with homes made from cardboard boxes, wood and blankets.
About 23 babies have been born this year, bringing the total to more than 100 children living at the camp.
Showers and 10 portable toilets have since been removed, allegedly by the City and the Department of Home Affairs.
Refugee activist Hafiz Muhammed said they were dumped in the area, saying for the past two years, no officials have come to speak to them or inspect their living conditions.
“From the beginning of Covid-19 we were at the Methodist Church.
Then they brought us here without any mattresses, sanitation or food. It was like they were throwing us in a dustbin with no help,” he said.
Muhammed said the City, Home Affairs, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) worked together to move them to the area.
“Many promises were made before we came here, now none of those promises has been fulfilled. We have had to speak to people and organisations ourselves and seek help. We do not want to go live in the communities because of safety, we also don’t want to be deported back to our countries but we want to leave South Africa. That is the only solution that is good for us. Because we can’t live like this, we fear for the lives of our children. We have suffered here and we feel now it is enough,” said Muhammed.
Paint City resident Mama Mary said the toilet facilities being removed added more problems to the list, particularly for mothers.
“We thank God that he is protecting us because life here is not easy.
To be honest, I fear the infection we are going to get. To have five toilets shared among so many women and children. We flee our countries with our girls because of forced marriages and the other many issues we face as women. In South Africa, the problems have been added.
Our situation is not good at all,” she said.
When he fled from his country nearly ten years ago, Dutamo Buffabo said he thought he would be safe and protected. “Now we come to live in this tent. It’s like we are not considered human beings.
They dropped us here and since then never came to assist with anything. There is no sanitary system or any food assistance from them and the tent is leaking when it rains. We were promised so many things and that we will even get meals three times a day. None of those promises has been fulfilled. We came to South Africa for international protection as refugees. We left our war countries, thinking our lives will be better. But our situation is worse here. We are facing an extremely bad situation in this country and we want to leave,” he said.
Gift of the Givers Project Manager Ali Sablay said the living conditions in the camp were appalling.
The organisation has been assisting the refugee community.
“That tent was only designed for two weeks and the families were going to be relocated. So you can imagine the unhygienic situation in the camp, already it was a concern during the Covid-19 pandemic. We don’t know who is in charge now as you know no department has taken any responsibility for the people. The people are really struggling there. Many people got sick in those camps as well.
“During the Covid-19 pandemic, we have been feeding the people there and assisting them. Unfortunately, they are still stuck this way where they are now and there is no movement in which way to go forward. Let’s hope the situation can be resolved soon, especially for the elderly and the children,” he said.
The City referred inquiries to Home Affairs.
Home Affairs spokesperson Siya Qoza said the department had visited the temporary shelter and verified the people who are there.
“We are not aware of anyone of them who do not have enabling documents. The department and various other stakeholders have always explained to the protestors that there are only two options available to them.
Reintegration into the communities they came from (or) repatriation to their home countries. There are no other options.
“The UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) confirmed that this is the correct approach at the 73rd session of the Executive Committee of the UNHCR held in Geneva last week,” Qoza said.
The UNHCR said following protests by a group that included refugees and asylum-seekers who were largely from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi in October 2019 at the Waldorf Arcade, where UNHCR office was based, they have been engaging in multi-stakeholder efforts to find a suitable resolution to the situation in the last two years.
“In early 2021, at the request of the South African government, UNHCR made available a reintegration package to the protestors at the two sites in an effort to support their reintegrate back into their various communities.
As a results around 810 persons took the package and reintegrated back into their communities by July 2021.
“It was found out that most of the protesters were either asylum seekers whose claims were still pending as part of the stuck backlog or were not documented. Equally the majority of protesters were interested in resettlement to other countries rather than locally integrated. These refugees and asylum seekers have been repeatedly encouraged by authorities and UNHCR to respect the legislation and integrate back into their communities as the best available solution.”
Cape Times
* The Cape Times’ Big Friday Read is a series of feature articles focusing on the forgotten issues that often disappear in the blur of fast news cycles, and where we also feature the everyday heroes who go out of their way to change the lives of others in their communities.