‘They will attack me if I stay’: immigrants in South Africa flee for safety amid violence and anti-foreigner protests | South Africa

South Africa was holding its breath on Tuesday as mass anti-immigration protests took place across the country. These come after a weeks-long campaign against foreigners in which at least four people were killed and tens of thousands fled for safety.

In the coastal city of Durban, where violence was expected, the streets were unusually quiet and shops were shuttered as tensions were intense.

More than 2,000 protesters wearing Zulu clothing marched through the city center brandishing sticks and sticks and chanting “Abahambe!” (“They must go!” in isiZulu, the most spoken language in the country), a phrase that became the rallying cry of the movement.

Campaign groups behind the protests gave undocumented immigrants an arbitrary “deadline” of June 30 to leave the country; Many people fear that the marches will turn violent.

In the days leading up to the deadline, thousands of people fled their homes in fear, sleeping rough on pavements, open fields and makeshift camps in the hope of being repatriated. While many African governments have organized buses or planes to bring their citizens home, police said more than 25,000 people have been repatriated so far.

A 29-year-old Malawian citizen was killed by an attacker in the city of Pietermaritzburg, 80 kilometers away from Durban. Crowd after the protest on June 19Hundreds of families camped for days in front of an abandoned building.

On the eve of the June 30 protests, a serpentine queue formed in the overgrown garden as authorities raced to send home as many people as possible. As exhausted mothers and children sat around campfires, people piled their tightly packed belongings onto buses bound for South Africa’s northern border.

Jackson Makungwa stood in line next to two small bags: everything he could carry for the 10 years he spent building a life in South Africa. The 29-year-old Malawian said he once considered South Africa a “land of hope” and lived there legally, but had not been able to renew his work permit for the past two years.

“I don’t want to be in the country illegally, but the system won’t let me be here legally,” he sighed.

For weeks, Makungwa resisted his mother’s increasing pleas for him to leave. This changed when a Malawian friend of mine was attacked by seven people.

“They said the deadline is the 30th, so if I stay, they will attack me,” Makungwa said.

He showed me a photo on his phone of his son born to a South African mother. She had not been able to obtain travel documents for the baby in time. “I had to leave him behind. He’s two months old today.”

Down the road, at a makeshift camp set up by Zimbabwean families, Lydia Mpingashato had just been informed that she had been fired from her job as a cleaner. While women were cooking over an open fire, children were running around. Many people, including people with legal documents, said they were evicted by landlords who feared retaliation for renting to immigrants.

Mpingashato was threatened on June 27 while waiting for a taxi in the district where he had lived for 17 years. “He said he was going to burn my house down and kill my family,” she said. “I don’t have any plans anymore; I’m just going home to be safe.”

She said her 17-year-old son had to leave the only home he had ever known and many of his South African friends. “When he saw the camp, he said to me, ‘They actually didn’t like us at all.’”

Many people in South Africa blame immigrants from other parts of the continent for the country’s high unemployment and crime rates. “Xenophobia and Afrophobia…emerge at the intersection of economic insecurity, high unemployment, inequality, weak governance and poor migration management,” says Philile Ntuli of the South African Human Rights Commission.

The country, which hosts approximately 2.4 million foreigners (documented and undocumented) according to 2022 census data, has a long history of anti-immigrant violence. Xenophobic riots of 2008 It killed 62 people and displaced more than 150,000. In another wave of attacks in 2015, at least five people died.

In response to recent tensions, the government has sought to ease public anger by intensifying its crackdown on undocumented immigration. Police say more 50,000 undocumented immigrants They have been detained since January. On Monday night, President Cyril Ramaphosa met with some of the protest leaders and warned against “cautiousness”.

As marches began across the country, intense security measures were observed, with the authorities prepared against possible unrest. In Durban, helicopters circled overhead as police and private security watched from armored vehicles. Organizers urged protesters to remain peaceful and avoid looting, but some marchers made veiled threats about what would happen after the “deadline.”

As the crowd passed dilapidated apartment blocks, some protesters pointed at families watching from windows, called on them to leave the country and made throat-cutting gestures. “I can smell strangers,” said a man carrying a shield.

Nkosi Ndlovu, a 48-year-old priest who accused immigrants of selling drugs to local youth, including his aunt, said: “We are talking nicely. We will not talk tomorrow. We are taking action.”

On the outskirts of the march, 40-year-old Mfundo Zulu said immigrants were taking jobs away from South Africans by accepting lower wages. “These are our children, our youth are dead,” he said, pointing to a nearby homeless camp. He said many jobs have popped up since thousands of people have fled the country in recent weeks.

“Life will be better now,” his friend added. “We don’t hate them, but they stayed too long.”

For Mukandjwa Shomri Forum of South African Refugee OrganizationsThe South African government is “not doing enough” to hold perpetrators of xenophobic violence accountable. “When you try to file a case with the police, they will ask for your papers first,” he said. “We are being attacked on the streets, in society and administratively.

“The hope that many of us had when we came to this country as refugees, that South Africa is a democratic state, an internationally recognized country that protects human rights, is no longer there,” he said.

Speaking by phone from the safe house, Leon was afraid of what would happen after the blackout on June 30. The refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who had been in South Africa since 2014, went missing after the attack on his shop on June 19. He just wanted to be known by his name.

“Even the police are clearly telling us that we are fed up with you and that you should leave our country,” he said, his voice trembling. He said harassment has been commonplace for years, but now they have the opportunity to do it openly. “After June 30, the situation will be even worse.”

Some days Leon regretted taking refuge in South Africa, where he thought he would find peace. “We are now living like someone who is already dead,” he said.

“We are ready for anything”