Cape Town - In commemoration of World Refugee Day (WRD), refugees living at the Bellville Paint City shelter held a small intimate programme, despite their less-than-rosy backdrop and living conditions.
According to the group, WRD came as a bittersweet reminder of the struggles they faced as refugees living in South Africa, without community and having lost loved ones to violent xenophobic attacks.
One of the group’s leaders, Hafiz Mohammed, said: “Today we are commemorating World Refugee Day, not to celebrate our struggles or chaotic lives, but as an opportunity to remind each other to remain patient and strong.”
The group of more than 100 men and women, including children, enjoyed their commemorative event, reciting meaningful poems, motivating speeches and music.
“We thought that it would be a good idea to have an event like this, because we wanted to raise the spirits of the people living here, and we wanted to remind each other to be strong, despite still struggling every day. Our journey is not an easy one, and we want to always be able to band together and rely on each other to move forward,” said Mohammed.
The group said it was waiting for assistance to move out of the country.
Meanwhile, while briefing Parliament about the refugees a few weeks ago, the Department of Home Affairs said most of the refugees at the two shelters had agreed to reintegrate into local communities, and the rest would be repatriated to their home countries.
However, community leader Caroline Hijira said the group’s stance on the matter remained the same.
Hijra said: “We cannot afford to be reintegrated back into communities that don’t want us or be sent back to the countries we came from, either. Both the options on offer by the South African government would not work for us.
“Our only ask now is that they go and drop us at the border of some other country, or let us go and we will walk there ourselves.”