On Friday, South African police took down a settlement of roughly 100 asylum seekers that had been established for over three years outside the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) offices in Pretoria, according to reports from AFP journalists on the scene.
The migrants had erected makeshift tents in front of the UNHCR building to appeal for relocation to other nations in the wake of a wave of xenophobic attacks that occurred in 2019.
As per the court’s decision, the refugees are to be transported to the Lindela Repatriation Centre, which is a short-term detention facility for undocumented migrants who are being deported to their countries of origin.
A large group of police officers, with the backing of immigration officials, took apart the encampment.
With the assistance of a megaphone, prosecutor Kobus Meijer cautioned the migrants that they risked being “apprehended” and “incarcerated” if they resisted the operation.
South Africa, the continent’s most industrialized economy, attracts economic migrants – a situation that has fuelled resentment among unemployed South Africans and sporadic outbreaks of xenophobic violence.