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Informal village springs up in Cape Town CBD as sit-in continues at UN refugee offices

Source: News24, 22/10/2019

A huge bag of chicken and bunches of spinach were being prepared for
hundreds of foreign nationals still camping out at the UN High
Commission for Refugees` offices in Cape Town`s CBD on Monday, in the
hopes of being evacuated from SA amid safety fears.
`If there is any generous country that still wants to help, we are
ready to go to that place where we can feel safe,` Jean-Pierre Balous,
originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, told News24.
They are hoping that the refugee agency will assist them and have
plastered the pillars at the entrance of Waldorf Arcade with pictures
of people who have been injured or attacked, seemingly just because
they are foreign.
A toddler wailed as his mother stirred a pot of mielie meal at the
entrance to St George`s Arcade, which is off one of the cobbled
walkways parallel to Adderley Street. Rows and rows of blankets and
pillows, with flip-flops neatly positioned at the end of the makeshift
beds, filled the arcade.

Bags at the ready in Cape Town. (Jenni Evans, News24)
Many people slept, blankets over their ears to block the cacophony of
chatter around them. Children played with little toy cars and a group
of women played a board game drawn on the side of a torn off piece of
cardboard.
`They have to do something to make the day shorter,` said one man.
The occupation began on October 8.
Piles of luggage and more bedding are stacked against an outside
pillar.
`We are ready to go,` said Balous, adding an estimated 80 children also
lived there, and those of school-going age were being forced to carry
on with school, even though their parents worry about them being
victimised.
The scene was juxtaposed against the announcement by Cape Town Mayor
Dan Plato on Monday that the Mother City was voted as one of the most
beautiful cities in the world.
According to a survey done by Flight Network, a Canadian online travel
agency, Cape Town came seventh out of 50 desired worldwide destinations
for tourists.
Balous said a similar sit-in was being held in Pretoria and he
understood that a meeting would be taking place on Monday with the
refugee agency to try and resolve the situation.
They are relying on friends to have somewhere to wash and use the
toilet, and some business people have taken small collections and
presented it to the women in the group to purchase food.
`I go to my friend`s house to bath,` said one man.
`I have to buy my water,` said another.
But the refugee agency made it clear last week that group settlement
was not an option, that it was not taking names for relocation, and
there were no buses or planes coming to evacuate refugees and asylum
seekers from SA.
Resettlement option
After the attacks in Katlehong recently, xenophobia was blamed, and a
private airline took a group of people back to Nigeria at no charge.
The refugee agency added resettlement was only an option for a `very
small number of refugees` with strict criteria, which it said most
refugees do not meet. The criteria was set by resettlement countries,
not the refugee agency.
It said other grievances have been raised in daily meetings with the
agency.
These include access to documentation and the renewal of documentation.
The refugee agency said it was working with the South African
government to find solutions as quickly as possible, adding the groups
do not represent all refugees in SA.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, visited the country
last week and met President Cyril Ramaphosa and Home Affairs Minister
Aaron Motsoaledi to discuss refugees and asylum seekers in SA.
Grandi met refugees and asylum seekers in Pretoria and Johannesburg,
and held a video conference with those in Cape Town.
They raised concerns over the timeframes of the asylum process, and the
growing process of not being able to access and review documentation,
which had an impact on them getting jobs and services.
He noted the number of resettlement places worldwide were dropping.
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