/ 27 June 2008

Conditions remain dire in xenophobia camps

More than a month after xenophobic attacks shook Gauteng, feelings of desperation worsen among thousands of foreigners housed at temporary shelters.

More than a month after xenophobic attacks shook Gauteng, the feeling of desperation among thousands of foreigners housed at temporary shelters in the province seems to have worsened.

Growing frustration is leading to increased violence at these camps. Counsellors are reporting incidences of rape and sexual abuse, and suicide attempts and hunger strikes have been reported in the media.

Stella Mkiliwane, operations manager at the Refugee Ministries Centre, a non-profit organisation located in Wanderers, Johannesburg, says people at these camps are becoming more desperate because they really do not know what will happen next.

“Some people are anxious because their basic needs are not being addressed at the moment,” she says.

Displaced foreigners are frustrated because they feel no one is addressing their needs properly or listening to their complaints.

A counsellor from Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), who asked not to be named, warns that unacceptable living conditions becoming the norm for these people.

Food fights
About 130 people taking shelter at a new camp set up near the Rand Airport do not eat every day because there is simply not enough food, says Nhlapo, a volunteer at the camp. He says food fights often ensue.

“I have seen many physical fights and pushing during breakfast and dinner because they are scared of not getting food. Three men ended up in hospital because they fought over food. The ambulance took them away and we never saw them again,” says Danny Mbaya, a Congolese community leader at a temporary shelter at Glenvista. Foreigners previously housed at Jeppe and Cleveland police stations have been relocated there.

Hunger strikes have also been reported:

  • A hunger strike occurred at the Soetwater refugee camp in Cape Town earlier this month. According to Fatima Hassan of the Aids Law Project, Soetwater was reported to have the worst conditions of any of the camps. During negotiations with other camp leaders, Congolese representatives said they would stop their hunger strike.
  • A five-day hunger strike at the Akasia safety site outside Pretoria came to an end two weeks ago. Somalis, Ethiopians and Eritreans who have taken shelter at Akasia say the hunger strike was stopped after intervention by the government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
  • Immigrants at the Glenvista temporary settlement also embarked on a hunger strike. “People are refusing to eat and now they are beginning to fight with each other and they do not want to be reintegrated into the communities they are from,” says James Aliga, from Burundi.

Most of these hunger strikes have been an attempt in a bid to get the attention of the UNHCR to improve living conditions in camps and to get the UN’s help to resettle in another country — not necessarily the country of their origin.

Suicide attempts and attempted murder
A Mozambican woman tried to kill herself and her baby at the Germiston City Hall a month ago. Jeff Parsons, of the Red Ant Security Company, prevented the woman from strangling her baby and then hanging herself, by breaking through the door of a bathroom inside the hall.

The woman was standing on a toilet, naked with a towel around her neck. “She lost everything and did not know where to go,” says Parsons. “It was really disturbing to me. Being a parent myself I can’t imagine how desperate the woman must have been to try to kill her baby.”

In another case, a woman threw her two-month-old baby in front of a moving taxi. The driver swung out of the way and the baby was saved. According to Pixie du Toit, clinical psychologist and volunteer for Global Relief at the Rand Airport shelter, there have been several cases where women tried to murder their babies by dumping them in toilets.

It was also reported in the Star newspaper (June 9) that at least 800 Somali nationals had attempted suicide earlier this month by jumping into the Atlantic Ocean. It emerged later that the mass suicide was a hoax by the Somali refugees who wanted to draw the world’s attention to their plight.

Rape and abuse
The MSF counsellor says that he has dealt with nine cases of sexual abuse and four of rape since the attacks started more than a month ago. In three of the rape cases, men assaulted women inside the camps.

In many cases young women who are sexually abused in camps do not report it, “simply because they do not have the strength to be interrogated”, the counsellor says. “Abuse often occurs when men drink too much and then go to the woman,” he adds.

The Times reported on May 28 that a 13-year-old girl from the Democratic Republic of Congo had narrowly escaped being raped by a security guard at the Jeppe police station.

“I notice a lot of emotional eating in the camps, especially among men — they eat whatever they can lay their hands on. Men and women also drink more when they can get their hands on alcohol, to try and deal with the situation,” says the counsellor.

According to Nhlapo, the camp volunteer, emotional eating is common among men and women. “If you don’t regulate it, people will eat for up to seven times a day if they get the chance. People are bored and many of them are still emotionally unstable after the attacks. They eat to make themselves feel better.”

Even though no alcohol is allowed in the camps, foreigners often smuggle it in. “Drinking helps them to temporarily forget about the situation they are in,” Nhlapo says.

Children
“The children have completely absorbed the violence and they are acting out what they have seen,” says Heather Thompson, a volunteer at the Primrose police station and founder of People of Many, a literacy NGO.

Thompson has started a pre-school for children housed at the Rand Airport camp. “We had an incident where a boy threw a rock at a younger boy’s head. The boy had to get stitches. Kids normally fight, but I have never seen such aggression among such a young child,” she says.

Michelle Nthuli, a volunteer from the Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality’s Aids unit, says the violence to which children in the camps were exposed had a definite influence on their behaviour.

“When the toddlers fight, they really hurt each other. We have to separate them. Children imitate what they see and now they are practising what they saw in front of them. That is why I think it is better to separate the toddlers from the rest of the group, at least during the daytime. I am so worried about them,” she adds.

According to Thompson, these children are no better equipped than any other children to deal with such trauma. “The violence get into these children’s minds and, if there is no intervention, it will be outplayed for the rest of their lives.”

Partson Madzumure, a Global Relief volunteer and principal of a school set up at the Rand Airport camp, says that children have calmed down and seem less aggressive than just after the xenophobic attacks had occurred. “Children are more playful and relaxed. I think the educational programme we offer is really working.”

Police brutality
Three men were recently arrested by police at the Rand Airport camp — allegedly for discussing that the government should compensate them for the losses they suffered during the xenophobic attacks.

The MSF counsellor says: “An insider in the camp told the police that the men were discussing getting compensation for their losses. Four police officers just arrived at the camp, pulled the men out of their tents and took them to the Germiston police station after accusing them of being drunk.

“As they arrived at the police station, the policemen threw them with water and beat them with baton sticks. The men were arrested at 8pm and were only released at 2pm in the morning, after being assaulted. They had to walk 10km back to the camp.”

He says the men obtained mouth, nose, head and back injuries during the incident.

“Although the men were traumatised by the abuse, it has become somewhat normal for them to deal with this type of interrogation. They have learnt to accept it and they are too scared to press charges.”

Captain Steady Nawa, Germiston police station spokesperson, says that he was not aware of the incident, but will investigate. He encourages alleged victims to report such incidents to police. “If the accusations are true, we are not afraid to act against our own,” he says.