Cape Town - It has been year since hundreds of refugees and immigrants staged a sit-in protest at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) offices in the CBD, demanding to be resettled in other countries.
The group eventually moved to Greenmarket Square and the Central Methodist Church before being evicted by police and taken to Bellville, where they were rehoused in tents.
On Thursday, more than 600 members of the Bellville camp joined in celebrations through music, dance, poetry and a play reminiscing about the journey the refugees had undertaken.
Another group was resettled at a camp in Kensington after they were moved from the pavement next to the Cape Town Police Station.
Woman and Children at Concern (WCC) director Aline Bukuru reiterated the call for refugees to be resettled in safe countries She said there was "no life" for refugees in South Africa, and that the government was dragging its feet in forcing the UNHCR to take up its responsibility of protecting the refugees.
“Our struggle emanates from the ongoing xenophobic massacre of refugees and immigrants in South Africa, that go by without being taken into account, while the government is turning a blind eye to the lost lives of refugees and immigrants and their families left behind.
"We are not safe in South Africa and we need the UNHCR to take up its responsibility and respect its mandate of saving the lives of refugees like us, who are in danger, and get us out of South Africa,” she said.
The UNHCR had previously recommended that the refugees settle in their communities, which Bukuru said was impossible.
“We left the communities because … we were being discriminated against and being killed, and that problem was never resolved. The conditions we are currently staying under are not conducive to a good life, especially for the children. No one can raise their children under these circumstances.
"The government has made promises to repatriate us; however that is not an option for us because we fled our countries because of war and killings … We need change and that cannot be achieved if we are sent back to these communities or our countries,” she said.
Mukuru said donations from organisations had dried up and they were living from handouts from Good Samaritans. She said a promise by the City to provide three meals a day turned out to be false, because “we didn’t even get any visit from the City since we were dumped here”.
Congolese community leader Papy Sukami said they had lost six community members, including four children, while nine children were born since the initial protest.
Sukami said the year-long struggle was characterised by police assault, fines, court battles and humanitarian crises.
Cape Argus