South Africa’s businesses say xenophobia is having impact on income
Informal Cross Border Traders women share information after a training on safe migration conducted by IOM (photo: © IOM 2009 - MZW0057 / Erin Foster)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Numbers for Zimbabwean and other African migrant workers leaving South Africa are hard to come by but it’s clear they have been leaving in the wake of xenophobic threats, particularly in the Western Cape in the past few days.
Small businesses in the region say they are hurting financially, with a 40 percent drop in the number of people taking group taxis and landlords finding tenants have fled the premises.
Geneva-based IOM (International Organization for Migration) said earlier in the week that it was scaling up its operations at border posts to help Zimbabweans returning home, because of an increase in numbers.
IOM safe migration campaign at Matshiloni, Beitbridge Central (photo: © IOM 2009 - MZW0071 / Robert Mageza)
AllAfrica/SW Radio Africa reports that scores of stranded Zimbabwe families line the Beitbridge highways to Harare and Bulaweyo because they fled South Africa with little or no money.
The IOM has also been running a safety campaign in Beitbridge to help migrant and cross-border workers from Zimbabwe, part of a larger programme to provide help with a number of border problems.
IOM in Geneva warns of tense situation
Tutu’s One Movement tamping down xenophobia
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – The International Office for Migration (IOM), a UN agency in Geneva, warned Tuesday 13 July of possible violence against Zimbabwean and other migrant workers in South Africa, in the wake of the World Cup. The organization is preparing, with other UN agencies, the South African government and local NGOs (non-governmental organizations) inside Zimbabwe, to provide aid and help process the return of a large number of people. In recent days the popular border crossing at Beitbridge has been the scene of a steady flow of vehicles laden down with furniture and other household possessions.
The army and police are moving into Western Cape townships after threats of violence; two years ago violence flared, aimed at foreign workers. At the weekend foreign nationals were reported to be leaving Nyanga, Philippi East and Khayelitsha districts.
“I cannot risk the life of my family while trying to watch the World Cup final,” Ellias, a 26-old Zimbabwean from Gwanda, told IOM officials. He is married with two children and was passing through Musina on his way from Mamelodi Township near Pretoria.
Video: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, founder of One Movement, speaks to migrant workers on International Migrant Day, december 2009
Victim of earlier xenophobic violence in S. Africa © 2008 UNHCR / J. Oatway
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has condemned the recent spate of attacks on refugees and asylum-seekers, many of them from Zimbabwe, in the Western Cape town of De Doorns, South Africa. Local officials and the South African Red Cross moved quickly to supply some 3,000 displaced people with tents, portable toilets and hot meals. It was sending two officials from its Pretoria office to assist local officials to restore order, UNHCR said 20 November.
