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SOUTH AFRICA: No home away from home

04 Jun 2008 19:12:14 GMT
Source: IRIN

Background

• South Africa violence

JOHANNESBURG, 4 June 2008 (IRIN) - While the South African government focuses its efforts on the controversial relocation of thousands of migrants displaced by xenophobic violence to temporary shelters, it is becoming increasingly clear that the next step in the plan – reintegration into South African communities – will be hard to sell to immigrants and communities alike.

On 1 June, three weeks after the first attacks, authorities in Gauteng, South Africa's richest province and epicentre of the violence, started removing displaced foreign nationals from makeshift shelters at police and fire stations, churches and communal buildings that had initially provided safety.

But the relocation sites soon came under fire from planners, civil society and UN agencies, which all suggested that basic humanitarian standards were far from being met.

Now the government has said the camps are merely a temporary solution, and "the target is that by the end of two months, the temporary shelters will be shut down and the people will have returned to their communities, or will have voluntarily decided to repatriate," Thabo Masebe, a spokesman for the Gauteng Provincial Government, told IRIN.

"There are no efforts or attempts to prolong the foreign nationals' stay at those places," Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa told a media briefing on 3 June. "The provincial government will meet with all municipalities ... to chart a way in which we would reintegrate those displaced by the xenophobic attacks."

Jody Kollapen, Chairman of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said keeping people in camp-like settings would clearly segregate the residents as "non-South African", increasing their vulnerability and isolation.

"Having people leave the country sends a very dangerous message," and communities might interpret repatriation as a sign of success, an indication that violence was a sure way of driving people out for good, Kollapen said.

But observers say the reality of reintegrating migrants displaced by violence will present substantial challenges: the migrants' fear and mistrust of the communities that so violently shunned them, the continued frustration of host communities over their own socioeconomic problems, and the lack of a concrete plan.

A plan, sort of

According to a 4 June statement released by the Gauteng provincial government, the plan is to be led by a national Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on xenophobic attacks.

The aims of the government's plan are: "Ending the violence and stabilising the situation in affected areas, attending to the humanitarian relief and providing for the basic needs of the displaced persons, and the creation of necessary conditions for the reintegration of displaced persons back into their communities."

At the height of the violence the army was brought in to assist an overstretched police force and since then, according to the statement, "the situation has calmed down considerably" and "this is no doubt due to the increased visibility of the police and the support of other law enforcement agencies". No recent incidents have been reported.

Meanwhile, the government has been slammed for providing late and inappropriate relief, and at least one relocation site has been scrapped due to security and structural concerns. Shilowa said the government was now doing everything in its power to ensure that the temporary shelters met international standards for humanitarian assistance.

The final step of re-absorbing victims into society is to be accomplished by means of education and community co-operation. "The government's role is to lay the groundwork for the conditions for return," said Masebe.

"What we will do is to talk to the communities and help them to create the conditions for returning them [displaced people]. We will tell these communities to allow them to return and to not attack these people."

Easier said than done

"We are quite concerned about the way the reintegration will take place," said Monica Bandeira, a senior researcher at the Trauma and Transition Programme of the Council for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR).

"When you talk about reintegration, it's a complex process. There's the community, which also includes the people who have perpetrated the violence; and then there are the victims, who have lost most of their possessions and fear for their safety," Bandeira said.

Adane Ghebremeskei, manager of the Peacebuilding Programme at CSVR, is working towards co-ordinating dialogue sessions between community leaders and migrant representatives.

"We want to get first-hand information, and then go to the immigrant communities and get the issues from their side and learn about how it escalated, in order to find if there is common ground. You need a lot of groundwork, consultations; I don't think it's overnight work. The government cannot do this alone," Ghebremeskei said.

The biggest challenge, Kollapen said, would be establishing acceptance within communities. "At the heart of successful integration is building trust - that will take a lot of communication." He expected civil society, churches and trade unions to play pivotal roles. And on the other hand, "We need to deal with the fears of those affected by the violence."

"Without offering justification for the violence," Kollapen said, the socioeconomic hardships of host communities would need to be addressed urgently. Many communities, characterised by high unemployment and seemingly last in line for much needed basic service upgrades and housing development, had long felt "neglected and marginalised", and reacted by blaming foreigners for stealing jobs, high crime rates, and general deprivation.

"This was a significant wake-up call – the government is now acutely aware of this." Recent years had seen numerous protests calling for government to address the plight of the poor in these areas, he said.

Any form of reintegration would only be successful if the needs of host communities and returning immigrants were addressed in tandem. "We must be mindful that humanitarian assistance is ... also demonstrated to South Africans, who also live in dire conditions," Kollapen said.

Scared to go back

At the muddy camp for displaced migrants, north of the capital, Pretoria, foreign nationals were uniform in their distrust of returning to South African communities.

Mukadi Roger, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, was watching television at a friend's house when the xenophobic attacks started. He said a bullet came through the window of the house and both men ran and never returned. He said reintegrating into South Africa was not realistic.

"The hostility is still there, but they won't say it openly right now. The same people are still there; you want me to go back there? No. They won't miss the second time." He pointed out that the attacks had spread throughout the country, so there was no area where he would feel safe.

"People are only staying here in these conditions because of fear," said Idi Kubwima, a Burundian. "But people fled [violence in] their countries to come here and now it's the same [here]," he said.

"I lost my home and family in Sudan and I came here for protection," Mohammed Ahmad told IRIN. "For most of the people here [in the camp], there is no place to go back home."

Starting over, especially under hostile conditions, and the practical problems caused by having lost everything, were recurring issues.

Joyce Tlou, coordinator of the SAHRC's non-nationals programme, said after various community-level talks held by the SAHRC that many communities were "quite adamant that they will not be accepting foreign nationals back into their midst".

"There is clearly a latent resentment towards the use of violence," Kollapen said, "but people did tend to associate themselves with the idea that their community needed to get rid of foreigners."

tj/tdm/he

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