Refugees in South Africa fear new attacks as September 30 deadline looms

Refugees in Durban, South Africa, are living in fear of new attacks as a September 30 deadline declared by the anti-immigration movement, March and March, approaches. The group has called for undocumented foreign nationals to leave South Africa and has warned of further demonstrations if its demands are not met. Bishop Raphael Bahebwa, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has lived in South Africa for 26 years and has watched anti-foreigner sentiment flare repeatedly.

Bahebwa is currently in hiding, afraid he could be attacked for speaking out for the rights of foreigners in South Africa. He says that this year feels different, and the September 30 deadline has renewed fears of violence among migrant communities. For Bahebwa and other refugees in Durban, the distinction between documented and undocumented migrants offers little comfort, as they say the hostility they experience on the streets rarely begins with a request to see their papers.

Many refugees and asylum seekers have been forced to live on the pavement outside the Durban Refugee Reception Centre, where they have faced irregular access to food and medication. Some have described desperate conditions, with one man who had tuberculosis dying while living at the camp. The camp was also not far removed from the hostility its residents said they had fled, with members of March and March confronting refugees and asylum seekers living outside the centre on September 3.

Violence broke out during the confrontation, and police intervened, with at least four people reported injured. March and March has described its mobilisation as a campaign against undocumented immigration, crime, and deteriorating conditions in South African communities. The group says the government’s response to immigration enforcement has been insufficient, and its leaders have repeatedly rejected accusations that their campaign is xenophobic.

Bahebwa said documented and undocumented migrants alike have been caught in the hostility, with six refugees working in salons around Durban’s Warwick Street Market beaten by men carrying sticks earlier this year. Two were hospitalised, and Bahebwa alleged that the migrants had also struggled to obtain help from the authorities after earlier attacks. The police have not publicly responded to that specific allegation.

In mid-September, the government moved to clear the makeshift camp outside the refugee centre, offering refugees a choice: return to the communities they had fled or accept temporary accommodation at the Lindela facility in Gauteng. Some feared going to Lindela, a facility historically associated with immigration detention and repatriation, while others felt they could no longer endure life on the pavement. On September 15, 274 people were transported by bus from Durban to Lindela.

For those who stayed behind, leaving the pavement did not resolve the problem that had brought them there in the first place. Kafuti Muyumba, a small business owner from the DRC and a representative of the refugee community, said many were afraid to return to neighbourhoods where they had built businesses and lives. Muyumba said many refugees had lost their livelihoods during the months of upheaval and were now desperate to find accommodation, and that the memories of past xenophobic violence made the rhetoric surrounding September 30 difficult to dismiss.

Key points

• The South African government has intensified its immigration enforcement, processing 86,596 foreign nationals for deportation and repatriation between June 14 and August 20.
• March and March has called for undocumented foreign nationals to leave South Africa and has warned of further demonstrations if its demands are not met.
• Refugees in Durban say they have nowhere safe to return to after being forced from a makeshift camp.