Government is looking at granting special status to Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa that will allow them to reside and work in the country legally
The government has denied deciding to set up refugee camps for foreigners displaced by xenophobic violence. Reports suggesting such a move were ”baseless and therefore not true”, it said on Wednesday. ”The government has noted with concern media reports that the Cabinet has taken a decision to establish refugee camps,” a statement said.
The Department of Home Affairs said on Wednesday it planned to establish shelters for foreigners who have fled xenophobic attacks over the last two weeks. The BBC reported on Wednesday that seven ”refugee camps” would be set up. By Monday night there were an estimated 17 000 displaced foreigners left in Johannesburg.
Seven refugee camps are to be set up around the country for foreigners who have fled xenophobic attacks in South Africa, the BBC reported on Wednesday. The holding camps will take up to 70 000 people from increasingly unsanitary conditions at temporary shelters put up around state and municipal buildings and police stations.
Two weeks after the start of the xenophobic attacks in Gauteng, the government and police are still at a loss on how to handle the escalating violence. "The attacks keep on taking us by surprise. When we think the situation is under control something erupts somewhere else," an official from the Department of Home Affairs told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> on Monday.
Opposition parties on Monday lambasted the government for its handling of xenophobic violence in parts of the country, and even called for the army to be deployed. Mobs roaming through poor townships around Johannesburg have killed and beaten up immigrants over the past week, with Zimbabweans and others reporting purges by armed locals.