How did hundreds of refugees end up on Durban’s streets outside Home Affairs? - IOL

From displacement and immigration-status checks to failed accommodation talks and violent confrontations, the refugees’ months-long stay outside Home Affairs on Che Guevara Road in Durban has become a flashpoint in the city’s escalating migration tensions.

For months, hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers have been living on the pavement outside the Department of Home Affairs’ Refugee Reception Centre on Che Guevara Road in Durban.

The group is made up largely of people from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi and Rwanda.

Their presence outside Home Affairs has become the centre of a growing dispute over immigration, documentation, safety and the government’s responsibility towards refugees and asylum seekers.

But how did the group end up living on the streets outside a government office?

The situation intensified in May amid growing anti-illegal immigration sentiment in South Africa.

Anti-immigration activists increased calls for foreign nationals to leave the country, with some using June 30 as a deadline for undocumented foreign nationals to leave.

Among those involved was activist Nkosikhona “Phakel'umthakathi” Ndabandaba, who confronted foreign nationals in Durban and called on them to leave the country.

His comments came as tensions around undocumented immigration were increasing in the weeks leading up to June 30.

According to refugees and organisations assisting them, some members of the group began leaving their homes and communities after experiencing threats, intimidation and attacks linked to anti-immigrant mobilisation.

Some sought help from police and temporarily slept around Durban Central Police Station before being moved to the Diakonia Centre.

The group was later transported to the Home Affairs office on Che Guevara Road on May 21 for immigration-status verification.

The issue of documentation has been central to the dispute.

The eThekwini Municipality said 457 people were verified during the process, with only three found not to have valid documentation.

Those with documentation were encouraged to return to their communities and reintegrate.

However, the refugees said returning was not a safe option.

They said they feared further attacks or intimidation if they went back to the communities from which they had been displaced.

They have also disputed the characterisation of the group as being largely made up of undocumented migrants, pointing to the verification process.

After the verification process, the group remained outside the Home Affairs offices.

The pavement gradually became a makeshift settlement, with women, children and men living there.

The refugees have said attempts to find temporary accommodation elsewhere did not result in a lasting solution.

Civil society organisations have provided humanitarian assistance, including support to vulnerable people living at the site.

During a July walkthrough, Siyafana Sonke Action Campaign member Yeshelen Govender said women, young children and people with chronic illnesses were among those living at the site.

He said civil society organisations had been responsible for humanitarian aid.

On June 12, an Inter-Ministerial Committee led by Justice Minister Mamoloko Kubayi met with the group.

According to the eThekwini Municipality, two options were offered: reintegration into communities or accommodation at the Lindela Repatriation Centre in Gauteng.

The municipality said the group declined both options and continued to demand accommodation.

The refugees, however, said Lindela was not an acceptable long-term solution.

They maintained that they needed protection and temporary shelter because they did not feel safe returning to their former communities.

June 30 had been used by anti-illegal immigration groups as a deadline for undocumented foreign nationals to leave South Africa.

The National Campaign Against Xenophobia, backed by more than 130 organisations including trade unions, civic formations and civil society groups, raised concerns about refugees and asylum seekers who had been displaced in Durban.

The campaign said the group had been forced from their homes and communities by vigilante groups.

It argued that people should not be forced to choose between returning to places where they feared for their safety and living on the streets without shelter, safety, sanitation, food or adequate protection.

The June 30 demonstrations took place in several cities under significant security measures.

Thousands participated and the protests were largely peaceful, although there were isolated incidents, including a shooting in Hillbrow and incidents of looting in Cape Town, Durban and other areas.

The end of June 30 did not, however, end the anti-illegal immigration mobilisation.

In August, March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma told supporters in Durban that their campaign would continue.

The group planned to stage protests every Thursday until undocumented foreign nationals had left the country.

This continued mobilisation added to tensions around the refugees who were already living outside Home Affairs.

March and March later became increasingly involved in the dispute, calling for the site to be cleared and arguing that undocumented foreign nationals should leave South Africa.

The refugees and organisations supporting them, meanwhile, accused anti-migrant groups of contributing to the circumstances that forced people onto the streets.

The standoff escalated on September 3 when March and March staged what it described as a clean-up operation at the site.

Stones were thrown and police used crowd-control measures. A police officer was allegedly struck by a stone, while refugees and protesters traded accusations over responsibility for the violence.

On Thursday, March and March supporters returned to the area.

Protesters gathered at King Dinuzulu Park before moving towards the refugee camp.

The renewed mobilisation again brought attention to the unresolved dispute over the future of the people living outside Home Affairs.

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli has said the refugees will begin being processed for transfer to the Lindela Repatriation Centre in Gauteng.

Ntuli said processing would begin on Monday or Tuesday.

He also questioned why foreign governments had not stepped in to assist their nationals living in difficult conditions.

The move brings Lindela back into the dispute after it was previously offered as an option during the June 12 Inter-Ministerial Committee meeting.

The refugees had previously rejected the option, saying they wanted protection and temporary shelter rather than repatriation.

At the centre of the dispute is a fundamental question: where should the refugees go if they say they cannot safely return to the communities where they previously lived?

Authorities have presented reintegration and Lindela as alternatives to living on the pavement.

The refugees, however, say returning to their former communities is unsafe and that Lindela does not provide the long-term protection and temporary shelter they are seeking.

For months, the pavement outside Home Affairs has therefore remained the meeting point between two competing positions: calls for undocumented foreign nationals to leave South Africa, and the refugees’ insistence that many of them have documentation and cannot safely return to the communities from which they were displaced.