Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

South Africa failing people displaced by xenophobia riots

2008; Elsevier BV; Volume: 371; Issue: 9629 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0140-6736(08)60852-1

1474-547X

Clare Kapp,

Migration, Health and Trauma

The xenophobia riots in South Africa displaced tens of thousands of people, many of whom are in temporary camps, and are being cared for by non-governmental organisations as the initial emergency treatment phase shifts to more complex trauma counselling. Clare Kapp reports. Xenophobic attacks in South Africa have forced tens of thousands of people from their homes and shattered the reputation of the “rainbow nation” which preached racial harmony after years of apartheid. Françoise Kanyamuneza used to enjoy her work at a busy hospital in Cape Town, helping to plug the gap left by the exodus of South African health workers from the public sector. That was before a wave of xenophobic violence and intimidation forced the Burundian nurse and tens of thousands of other foreigners to flee their homes and seek sanctuary in police stations, churches, mosques, and community centres. Kanyamuneza ended up in a “safety site” at a bleak army base housing more than 1000 immigrants and refugees from Zimbabwe, Somalia, Congo, and other African countries. “How can I go back to work when I feel like they hate foreigners?” she demanded as she stood outside a communal army tent which lacked even basic plastic sheets on the muddy floor. “I am too scared to send my children to crèche or school. I don't trust them”, she said of her South African hosts. Kanyamuneza's reaction echoed throughout South Africa as the terror of rampaging mobs gave way to bitterness and uncertainty about the future. The initial emergency of casualties from gunshot and stab wounds, broken limbs, and burns was replaced by more complex trauma counselling, and makeshift shelters evolved into more organised camps, which looked set to stay open for weeks if not months. At least 62 people died, 670 were injured, and more than 1300 people were arrested. About 100 000 people were displaced, according to estimates from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which stepped in to help the government identify sites for the displaced in the Gauteng province surrounding Johannesburg after local authorities were overwhelmed in their efforts to meet the crisis. “I feel ashamed to be in a country where this happened because we have always prided ourselves on being the rainbow nation. It's embarrassing because my country has spearheaded peaceful negotiations over the continent and has one of the largest peacekeeping forces in Africa”, said Jerome Singh, head of the bioethics and health law programme at Durban's Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa. “What is most embarrassing is that the relief efforts are being led by non-governmental organisations. It's the richest country in Africa and it has the money, but the government isn't taking the lead”, he told The Lancet. As the central government dithered, organisations like the Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the Treatment Action Campaign, and faith-based charities worked around the clock, bolstered by an avalanche of support from the public. The violence flared up on May 11, 2008, in Alexandra, an overcrowded slum next to Johannesburg's affluent shopping and business hub of Sandton. The following weekend it spread to deprived inner-city areas of Johannesburg and the industrial East Rand, where images of a Mozambican migrant worker being burnt alive featured on front pages around the world. In Cape Town, it degenerated into random looting by criminals and opportunists, with sporadic incidents on the borders with Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and in the coastal resort of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. Authorities were caught off guard by the scale of the attacks, despite South Africa's notoriety for violence. More than 50 people are murdered every day, and violent robbery and carjackings are common, as are kidnappings and attacks on children. South Africa also has the highest reported rate of rape in the world (although most incidents are unreported) at 114 per 100 000, compared with 32 per 100 000 in the USA, according to police figures for 2006. Anti-crime campaigns have had a relatively limited effect on the figures. The South African Institute for Race Relations said the government's failure to curb violent crime meant thugs operated with impunity with little fear of arrest or successful prosecution. The Institute said lack of border controls and President Thabo Mbeki's failure to address the crisis in Zimbabwe had resulted in a huge illegal population in South Africa. “Without adequate legal standing in the community these people became easy or soft targets for mob violence”, it said, pointing out that the police's own heavy handed raids on illegal immigrants, including a much-criticised midnight raid on hundreds of Zimbabweans sheltering in a Johannesburg church earlier this year created the impression that foreigners were “fair game”. The Mozambican government helped repatriate more than 30 000 of its nationals. Thousands of Malawians also returned home. Zimbabwe's government sent buses to Johannesburg, but had few return passengers because of the economic meltdown and increasing political clampdown ahead of the presidential run-off on June 27, 2008. Unwilling or unable to return home, thousands of Zimbabweans sought sanctuary in the makeshift shelters. “Water leaks into our tents, it's wet and we are tired of eating bread”, complained Evelyn Davison, who was sent to a beach camp just outside Cape Town. ‘’But we don't want to go back to the community, and we don't want to go back to Zimbabwe”, she said. Cape Town mayor Helen Zille set up the beach camps, or “safety sites” despite criticism from civil rights activists that they resembled internment camps. About 9000 people were housed in the tent camps, the largest one being at Soetwater, a beach resort near the Cape of Good Hope. Some 11 000 were scattered throughout the city in mosques and other centres, as authorities hoped it would be easier to reintegrate them into society and limit the risk of long-term dependency. City health director Ivan Bromfield said that once initial problems—such as sporadic incidents of diarrhoea—were sorted out, health conditions at the camps were generally satisfactory. Most of the camps had a special medical tent and those with chronic diseases were told to come forward so they could receive medication. “The physical side is one thing. But the mental health is another matter completely”, Bromfield said as he toured the safety sites with Zille. Increasing tensions at the Soetwater camp led to hunger strikes and several Somali refugees tried to commit suicide by throwing themselvs into the rough, icy waters near the Cape of Good Hope. The Somalis, many of whom saw their shops ransacked in the violence, led demands that the UNHCR resettle them in a third country such as Australia—an option that the UN agency said was unfeasible. The Treatment Action Campaign and AIDS Law Project threatened legal action if authorities did not close the camp, which, it said, fell below international humanitarian standards, and move displaced people to a secure location near the city centre. The campaign groups described the sanitary situation as “awful” and complained that there were only two meals per day, mainly cold food. Despite the problems, Johannesburg authorities followed Cape Town's lead and moved people out of overcrowded police stations and into camps, saying this should be for a maximum of 2 months. Oxfam and MSF criticised the move, saying that some of the chosen sites were insanitary and unsuitable, including one at an old mine dump which would worsen respiratory infections in the bitter cold of the looming winter. “Our patients have already been traumatised by the violence they have suffered and the abhorrent conditions of displacement”, said MSF nurse Bianca Tolboom. “They say they are being treated like animals, they are not given any information about where they are being taken, how long they will remain and what the plans are afterwards. They are paralysed to make any kind of informed decision. This uncertainty only exacerbates their trauma.”