A civil society coalition is calling on the South African (SA) government to urgently protect foreign nationals who are living in the country legally, warning that fear has driven many documented migrants to sleep on pavements just to stay safe.
The Siyafana Sonke Action Campaign raised the alarm following last month’s widespread anti-immigrant protests across SA, which resulted in the state repatriating thousands of undocumented foreign nationals.
However, activists say the fallout from the demonstrations has hit legal residents hard. Fearing targeted attacks within their local SA host communities, scores of legally documented foreign nationals are choosing to sleep on the freezing streets rather than risk going back to their homes.
Siyafana Sonke activist Lubna Nadvi urged authorities to step in and secure temporary shelters for those displaced. She emphasised that the ongoing crisis is testing SA’s core values, calling for a return to empathy and the spirit of Ubuntu.
“We need to get shelter for all the people who are legally documented and forced to sleep out on the streets. We need to make sure that even those that are not legally in the country are treated with kindness,” Nadvi said. “We need to become South Africans again because I think we have lost the spirit of Ubuntu. We need to rediscover our humanity.”
–ChannelAfrica/SABC–
