The government is festering uncertainty by denouncing xenophobia but at the same time targeting foreigners as criminals‚ Medicins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) SA said in a statement.
“This type of action sends a contradictory message to foreign nationals‚ who remain vulnerable and deeply traumatised‚ and South Africans among whom they will re-integrate‚” said MSF SA media liaison officer Kate Ribet.
Tuesday’s statement comes ahead of an emergency press conference “to discuss the urgent application by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) to allow for legal representation for those detained‚ and a halting in deportations until all detainees have consulted an attorney”.
LHR are also requesting the provision of a full detainee list.
Ribet cited the conciliatory approach that saw KwaZulu-Natal MEC for community safety Willies Mchunu spend last Tuesday speaking and listening to the concerns of about 700 camp residents.
“However‚ on the very same day police‚ the military and home affairs officials‚ conducted nighttime raids targeting foreigners across the Durban city centre – arresting more than 100 people with the intention to deport them‚” she said.
She went on to make mention of last Friday morning’s raid on the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg and other places in the CBD‚ “which government says is aimed at rooting out crime and clamping down on foreign nationals without documents”.
Last week‚ the majority of people in the Chatsworth displacement camp screened by MSF psychologists “showed symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress”.
“The kind of trauma our psychologists witnessed is similar to what MSF sees in refugee/displacement camps in Central African Republic and South Sudan where people are the victims of active conflict in civil strife‚” the MSF said.
“From our interviews with residents in the camp‚ it’s clear that some people have suffered cumulative traumas – experiencing violence in their country of origin‚ again during bouts of xenophobic violence in 2008‚ and now in 2015.”
MSF said it was concerned that the raids in the wake of the xenophobic violence “erode trust and expose a contradiction”.
“The government denounces aggressive xenophobic action by South African citizens‚ and a short while later mobilises state agencies to single out foreigners for arrest and criminal prosecution or deportation.”
Government action on foreigners 'sends a contradictory message': MSF
“This type of action sends a contradictory message to foreign nationals‚ who remain vulnerable and deeply traumatised‚ and South Africans among whom they will re-integrate‚” said MSF SA media liaison officer Kate Ribet.
Tuesday’s statement comes ahead of an emergency press conference “to discuss the urgent application by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) to allow for legal representation for those detained‚ and a halting in deportations until all detainees have consulted an attorney”.
LHR are also requesting the provision of a full detainee list.
Ribet cited the conciliatory approach that saw KwaZulu-Natal MEC for community safety Willies Mchunu spend last Tuesday speaking and listening to the concerns of about 700 camp residents.
“However‚ on the very same day police‚ the military and home affairs officials‚ conducted nighttime raids targeting foreigners across the Durban city centre – arresting more than 100 people with the intention to deport them‚” she said.
She went on to make mention of last Friday morning’s raid on the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg and other places in the CBD‚ “which government says is aimed at rooting out crime and clamping down on foreign nationals without documents”.
Last week‚ the majority of people in the Chatsworth displacement camp screened by MSF psychologists “showed symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress”.
“The kind of trauma our psychologists witnessed is similar to what MSF sees in refugee/displacement camps in Central African Republic and South Sudan where people are the victims of active conflict in civil strife‚” the MSF said.
“From our interviews with residents in the camp‚ it’s clear that some people have suffered cumulative traumas – experiencing violence in their country of origin‚ again during bouts of xenophobic violence in 2008‚ and now in 2015.”
MSF said it was concerned that the raids in the wake of the xenophobic violence “erode trust and expose a contradiction”.
“The government denounces aggressive xenophobic action by South African citizens‚ and a short while later mobilises state agencies to single out foreigners for arrest and criminal prosecution or deportation.”
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