Human rights lawyer, Louise du Plessis says they will talk to church groups to see if they can accommodate the refugees evicted outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office In Brooklyn, Tshwane.
On Friday, law enforcement officials carried out an eviction order against about 100 refugees who had been camping outside the UNHCR since 2019 demanding to be relocated to other countries due their “fears of xenophobia attacks” in South Africa.
The evictions followed last week’s North Gauteng High’s eviction order granted to the Department of Home Affairs.
A group of refugees vacated the campsite moving the valuables near the Brooklyn Mall while authorities said six people were arrested during the operation.
Du Plesis said it seemed that people decided that they would rather leave than be repatriated to Lindela Repatriation Centre.
We are trying to talk to church groups to see if they can accommodate them because they don’t have a place to go to. They are just hitting the road because they are saying Lindela is a hell hole that they don’t want to return to because many of them have been there for three years. They say they would rather stay on the pavement than go to Lindela,” she added.
Refugee Marie Daniel Kashindi from the Democratic Republic of Congo said she doesn’t want to go to the Lindela and “It is very painful” that they are evicted from the camping site outside the UNHCR.
Another woman who spoke on condition of anonymity said the living conditions at Lindela Repatriation Centre were appalling and she doesn’t want to go back there because she nearly died there.
Johnny Lowosa from the Democratic Republic of Congo also refused to go to the Lindela Repatriation Centre.
“The decision is that one, Lindela is not an option, prison is a no, we don’t want to go to prison. So we said we don’t want South Africa. The court said we must vacate the place so that is what we are doing. So far I am just doing what the court order says so that I can comply,” said Lowoso.
