Authorities removed Thursday scores of foreign nationals who had sought protection from anti-migrant groups at a church centre in Durban in a days-long standoff highlighting xenophobic tensions in South Africa.
Campaigns by small citizen-led groups against undocumented migrants have picked up in recent months but without reaching the level of violence seen in waves of anti-foreigner attacks over previous years.
Police herded about 400 migrants from countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Somalia onto buses and removed them from the complex in the east coast city where some had been camped for days.
Local anti-immigrant campaigners cheered and chanted “They must go!” as the foreign nationals — including women and children — were driven to a government refugee centre.
Some pressed identity documents to bus windows to show they had the proper papers to be in South Africa.
Several told AFP they had left their homes in fear after anti-immigrant locals went door-to-door to tell undocumented foreigners to leave by June 30.
Their ultimatum has no legal weight and is not backed by the authorities.
There were some scuffles during the evacuation, with one man breaking free and chased by locals before police intervened.
Anti-immigrant figurehead Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma told reporters that her group, March and March, opposed violence but wanted all undocumented foreign nationals to leave.
The group blames migrants for social ills such as high unemployment and crime, but analysts say this is scapegoating.
Source: Insider Paper
