Durban - Foreigners still living at the Chatsworth shelter want the UN to intervene and set up a permanent camp, which they say is the only place they will feel safe.
Burundian Majaliwa George said despite the South African government and police’s efforts to end the violence, re-integration was not an option for him.
“This (xenophobic violence) happened in 1998, 2004, 2008 and then this year. Each time, we are told there is peace we should go back to the communities we lived in. We are being told the camp is closing, we must go back… until the next time we are beaten.”
George is one of the 270 people remaining at the Chatsworth shelter, with thousands having been re-integrated, or gone back to their home countries.
“With us from Burundi and Congo, it’s different. We are refugees not immigrants, we are here because we fled war in our countries.”
He said by accepting them as asylum seekers and granting them refugee status, the South African government had welcomed them and committed to keeping them safe.
After fleeing his Clare Estate residence, George lived at the Phoenix shelter with his wife and child. When it was closed last week, they were moved to Chatsworth.
“I feel hopeless. My life is meaningless. There is no future for us… They say the violence is finished but I can’t even answer my phone and speak my home language outside this camp because people will harass me,” said George.
He called on the UN High Commission for Refugees to take over their welfare as they had more experience dealing with the safety and security of refugees.
With no reports of violence in the recent past, authorities have also tried to close the Isipingo camp; however some of the displaced would not leave.
Jennifer Bora, a wife and mother of three, said she had left the Isipingo camp but returned and moved to Phoenix from Isipingo three days ago. “My son was in a taxi from school and people started saying ‘hey you kwere kwere, what are you still doing here?’ He was so scared he got off before his stop and phoned me crying to come fetch him,” said Bora.
She believes they don’t have a choice but to live in the shelter because the violence may have stopped but, “the attitude and hate is still there”.
She said she longed to return to Congo but knew that, too, would not be possible until there was peace.
Daily News