Xenophobia in South Africa: Voices from the Camps - Elvira Modesero

Publisher:
MSF
Publication Date:
21 May 2015
Tags:
Burundi, South Africa, Conflict, Peace and Security, Governance, Human Rights, Legal and Judicial Affairs

During March and April 2015 violent xenophobic attacks spread across South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, leaving seven people dead, several injured and more than 7,000 foreign nationals displaced. Initially housed in three displacement camps around Durban, the number of people - predominantly Malawians, Mozambicans and Zimbabweans - dwindled as they were repatriated. Thousands of them boarded buses for an exodus en masse. As the displacement camps emptied out during April, refugees from Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo remained stuck, facing a difficult dilemma: they cannot return to their countries of origin at war, neither can they return to the communities they fled from for fear of being attacked again. Elvira Modesero left Burundi in 2004 to seek refuge in South Africa. Here she tells her story. For more Voice from the Camps visit: http://www.msf.org.za/xenophobia

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