Cape Town - While the few refugees remaining at the Youngsfield safety site have now resorted to begging on the streets for money to buy food, the leader of the Blue Waters Camp, Emiliene Nikwakwira, says the refugees there have no choice but to go back home.
"We're sick and tired of living here," said Nikwakwira. "They promise to help, but nothing happens. We might as well go home."
Cape Town City spokesman Pieter Cronje said the city would apply for a court order this week to evict the last group of 394 displaced foreigners in the Blue Waters Camp. As Youngsfield is owned by the military, it will not be included in the order.
The government declared all the safety sites for refugees, who fled their homes after the xenophobic violence in May, closed in October.
Refugees said conditions at Blue Waters and Youngsfield had deteriorated since electricity and water to the sites were cut and food supplies from donors had dwindled.
On a visit to Blue Waters this week, Metro Police officers prevented the Cape Argus from going in to speak to the refugees.
"There were 20 000 displaced foreigners in the safety sites and other shelters," said Cronje. "Some 19 600 have relocated and reintegrated into communities. This is the last group that have refused all offers of assistance to relocate.
"It was a lengthy process to prepare volumes of visual and documentary evidence for the eviction application, but that is now ready."
Cronje added that the city did not prescribe where the foreigners should go.
"The other foreigners relocated to their original communities or other communities of their choice, or returned to their countries of origin."
Meanwhile, the refugees at Youngsfield camp claimed that life was hard as they were living in appalling conditions, without basic services.
Many refugees refused to go back to their former local communities. They said they were afraid they would be attacked. They said that it would be better for them to return to their own countries.
The authorities at Youngsfield allowed the Cape Argus to enter the camp site.
An angry Somalian woman at the camp, Abdar Abdul, 38, who has eight children between the ages of two months and 14, said that she would be happy to go back home to Somalia.
"This is not a life," said Abdul. "It's a hell hole, it's hell here and hell back home, so we should rather go back to our own hell back in Somalia," added Abdul.
Looking at the wood that was collected by her children, she said as they did not have electricity the wood would be used to make a fire to cook whatever they could find to eat.
"I will now make a pot of food and gather my family to eat the little we have," said Abdul.
She said it broke her heart when her children asked her what was happening and why they were not going to school.
"The children ask all sorts of questions which I do not have answers to, and it fills my heart with lots of pain.
"I just don't know what to say to them," said Abdul.
Another Somalian refugee, Fatima Wadigo, 40, said that she would be glad to go home because she did not like the way that the refugees were forced to live.
"If they (the government) want to get us to our countries, then we are ready. We're tired of living like this."
With tears in her eyes, Wadigo said for many years she had lost contact with her three children and she did not know where they were in Somalia.
"I don't know whether my children are dead or alive in that war happening in my country," said Wadigo.
Pointing to the dilapidated tent they used as shelter at the camp, with flies swarming around them, Wadigo added that the conditions were unhygienic and that people got sick in such an environment.
"People have things like ring worms on their bodies, the children have them too on their heads," said Wadigo.
For many months, she said, since they were no longer provided with food, they had to resort to begging on the streets for food and money.
"We go to the streets to beg. Sometimes we make as little as R10 per day to buy food, and then share with some other families that don't have.
"Sometimes we can go without food for days," said Wadigo. - Cape Argus
"We're sick and tired of living here," said Nikwakwira. "They promise to help, but nothing happens. We might as well go home."
Cape Town City spokesman Pieter Cronje said the city would apply for a court order this week to evict the last group of 394 displaced foreigners in the Blue Waters Camp. As Youngsfield is owned by the military, it will not be included in the order.
The government declared all the safety sites for refugees, who fled their homes after the xenophobic violence in May, closed in October.
Refugees said conditions at Blue Waters and Youngsfield had deteriorated since electricity and water to the sites were cut and food supplies from donors had dwindled.
On a visit to Blue Waters this week, Metro Police officers prevented the Cape Argus from going in to speak to the refugees.
"There were 20 000 displaced foreigners in the safety sites and other shelters," said Cronje. "Some 19 600 have relocated and reintegrated into communities. This is the last group that have refused all offers of assistance to relocate.
"It was a lengthy process to prepare volumes of visual and documentary evidence for the eviction application, but that is now ready."
Cronje added that the city did not prescribe where the foreigners should go.
"The other foreigners relocated to their original communities or other communities of their choice, or returned to their countries of origin."
Meanwhile, the refugees at Youngsfield camp claimed that life was hard as they were living in appalling conditions, without basic services.
Many refugees refused to go back to their former local communities. They said they were afraid they would be attacked. They said that it would be better for them to return to their own countries.
The authorities at Youngsfield allowed the Cape Argus to enter the camp site.
An angry Somalian woman at the camp, Abdar Abdul, 38, who has eight children between the ages of two months and 14, said that she would be happy to go back home to Somalia.
"This is not a life," said Abdul. "It's a hell hole, it's hell here and hell back home, so we should rather go back to our own hell back in Somalia," added Abdul.
Looking at the wood that was collected by her children, she said as they did not have electricity the wood would be used to make a fire to cook whatever they could find to eat.
"I will now make a pot of food and gather my family to eat the little we have," said Abdul.
She said it broke her heart when her children asked her what was happening and why they were not going to school.
"The children ask all sorts of questions which I do not have answers to, and it fills my heart with lots of pain.
"I just don't know what to say to them," said Abdul.
Another Somalian refugee, Fatima Wadigo, 40, said that she would be glad to go home because she did not like the way that the refugees were forced to live.
"If they (the government) want to get us to our countries, then we are ready. We're tired of living like this."
With tears in her eyes, Wadigo said for many years she had lost contact with her three children and she did not know where they were in Somalia.
"I don't know whether my children are dead or alive in that war happening in my country," said Wadigo.
Pointing to the dilapidated tent they used as shelter at the camp, with flies swarming around them, Wadigo added that the conditions were unhygienic and that people got sick in such an environment.
"People have things like ring worms on their bodies, the children have them too on their heads," said Wadigo.
For many months, she said, since they were no longer provided with food, they had to resort to begging on the streets for food and money.
"We go to the streets to beg. Sometimes we make as little as R10 per day to buy food, and then share with some other families that don't have.
"Sometimes we can go without food for days," said Wadigo. - Cape Argus
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