Pretoria - Refugees camping outside the offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Brooklyn, Pretoria, have blasted the global organisation for failing to deliver on part of its core mandate to aid and protect.
The refugees, protesting outside the offices since 2019 following the outbreak of xenophobic attacks in parts of Joburg, said they would not move until their pleas for help were finally heard.
One of them is Hussain Omary Waitee, who said the group arrived at the doors of the UNHCR in 2019, and stayed outside the offices for a month before they were served with a court interdict to vacate the area.
The group, mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, were taken to alternative facilities – the men to Kgosi-Mampuru II Correctional facility, while the women and children were taken to Lindela Repatriation centre up until this year.
The men were released on June 17 last year and resumed camping out outside the UN offices in Brooklyn, joined by some women and children last month. “All officials are telling us is to go back to the very communities we ran from following the xenophobic attacks.
“We can’t go back into these communities; they don’t want us there and tell us to go back to our own countries.”
Waitee said the group survived outside the offices by creating makeshift shelters from cardboards and plastics. Their only source of help or food they had was from community members and passers-by. “Some people give us R10 or R20 and we buy bread to survive. My son is only 3 years old and it breaks my heart that he has to grow up in these conditions.”
One of the women, who asked not to be named tearfully recalled how the repeated xenophobic attacks she and her family experienced since they arrived in South Africa.
The mother of five said: “I’ve been in this country for over 15 years. I lost everything – my business, cars. The worst was having to watch my husband being stoned to death.
“We’re not saying they should take us to America, even Zimbabwe will do.”
Yesterday UNHCR spokesperson Laura Padoan said they remained concerned for the welfare of the refugees. Individuals had been offered accommodation and a package of local integration. A number of the refugees have expressed interest in returning to their countries of origin.
“It is not possible to offer resettlement to refugees on a group basis; resettlement places are extremely limited and only offered by host governments to the most vulnerable refugees.”
Pretoria News