7.8 C
Trondheim
Thursday, September 28, 2023
HomeAction alertsXenophobia: Voices from the camps (VIDEO)

Xenophobia: Voices from the camps (VIDEO)

Date:

Related stories

Libya Climate Crisis Linked to Pentagon-NATO Intervention of 2011

  Western foreign policy has destroyed the capacity of Libya...

Beyond Climate Colonialism and Food Imperialism to Earth Democracy and Food Freedom

  Prof. Vandana Shiva | Navdanya International – TRANSCEND Media...

Declaration of the Summit of Heads of State of the G77 and China

Havana, Cuba September 15 and 16, 2023photo: Abel Padrón...

PASHA workshop in Kampala Empowers Refugees Through Art expressions

  Kampala, Uganda - In a remarkable gathering on Saturday,...

Africa Climate Summit Issues Nairobi Declaration

  Tags: Africa, Africa Climate Summit 2023, Climate Change, Environment, Global warming, Solutions Africa Climate Summit 2023:...


Xenophobic attacks in Ramaphosa squatter camp east of Johannesburg, South Africa

 

 

 

 

 

Nine-year-old Dolly, staying in a temporary camp, doesn’t understand xenophobia – but like hundreds of children, she bears the brunt all the same.

Dolly has now lost weeks of schooling and misses her friends and teachers terribly. She lends her voice to the plight of foreign nationals still in limbo in South Africa.

 

 

 

 

 

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Southern Africa has released “Voices from the Camps”, a series of five powerful video testimonies from people who were displaced in the wake of the xenophobic violence in March, to ensure their stories are not forgotten and that South Africans learn more about the life-threatening challenges that vulnerable foreign nationals face.

By telling their stories in these videos, refugees, asylum seekers and survival migrants expose the harsh reality of life as “amakwerekwere” in South Africa. They describe the persistent xenophobia that leads to healthcare exclusion, being denied protection and the unpredictable violence they face from friends and neighbours. Many experienced similar attacks in 2008.

Following the repatriation of thousands of Malawians, Mozambicans and Zimbabweans in April by bus, the displacement camps set up for foreign nationals shrunk. Today 520 people – predominantly Burundians and Congolese – are stuck in limbo in the last remaining camp in Chatsworth. They cannot be repatriated to the conflict zones they fled from – but they don’t feel that it is safe to be reintegrated into the very communities from which they recently fled. Government-led reintegration efforts are underway but the trust of traumatised camp residents in a safe return is fragile.

“The kind of trauma we see in the camp is similar to what my MSF colleagues have witnessed in South Sudan and Central African Republic where people have been exposed to active conflicts. Our interviews with Chatsworth camp residents indicated they have suffered cumulative traumas. First they experienced violence in their country of origin; [then] again during the 2008 xenophobic violence, and again now in 2015. They also tell us about the daily level of discrimination and alienation they experience – at hospitals, getting around in minibus taxis and from police elsewhere,” MSF psychologist Penni Cox says.

With Africa Day on May 25, MSF Southern Africa calls on South Africans to help stop xenophobia and commit to solidarity for survival by sharing these videos to show compassion, and an understanding borne from our common humanity.

MGAFRICA

Latest stories

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here
Captcha verification failed!
CAPTCHA user score failed. Please contact us!