"Foreigners in South Africa face continued threats of xenophobic violence"

A year on from a two-week orgy of xenophobic violence in South Africa that killed 62 people and left thousands homeless, foreigners are still at risk of attack because the root causes have not been addressed, experts said on Monday. (from IOL)

"Foreigners in South Africa face continued threats of xenophobic violence," says the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa - a network of civil society groups working with refugees.

"Little has been done by authorities to address the root causes of the violence," the consortium found, noting that vigilantism was still common, often under the guise of "fighting crime".

The group cited an attack by a mob in January on a high-rise apartment in Durban housing foreigners as evidence that xenophobia was still prevalent.

In their bid to escape the mob two men jumped to their deaths and a third sustained serious injuries. They were from Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Mozambique.