{"id":169570,"date":"2020-10-21T17:51:08","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T15:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/mps-give-home-affairs-and-city-tongue-lashing-over-refugee-camps\/"},"modified":"2020-10-21T17:51:08","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T15:51:08","slug":"mps-give-home-affairs-and-city-a-tongue-lashing-over-refugee-camps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/mps-give-home-affairs-and-city-a-tongue-lashing-over-refugee-camps\/","title":{"rendered":"MPs give Home Affairs and City a tongue lashing over refugee camps"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article_body\">\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Tariro%20Washinyira\/refugees1.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/mps-give-home-affairs-and-city-a-tongue-lashing-over-refugee-camps.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">The male-only marquee at the refugee camp in Bellville where MPs are expected to conduct an oversight visit soon. Archive photo: Tariro Washinyira<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Members of Parliament are to conduct oversight visit to two refugee camps in Cape Town.<\/li>\n<li>Repatriation on the cards for refugees who refuse to leave the camps.<\/li>\n<li>MP remarks on the lack of a working relationship between the City and Home Affairs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p>Members of Parliament (MPs) say an urgent oversight visit to the Bellville and Kensington refugee camps in Cape Town is needed before people can be sent back into the communities they left last year.<\/p>\n<p>MPs also warned that those refusing to be reintegrated will instead be repatriated.<\/p>\n<p>The portfolio committee on Home Affairs was being briefed by the City of Cape Town, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), and the United Nations High Commissioner (UNHCR) on refugees in the city on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The protest by the refugee groups started in October 2019 and made headlines across the country when they first staged a sit-in at the UNHCR offices in St George\u2019s Mall. They were<a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/unhcr-refugees-evicted\/\"> removed<\/a> in a chaotic operation and ended up spending months occupying the Central Methodist Church and Greenmarket Square until April 2020. Many of the refugees were then moved to camps in Kensington and Bellville by the City at the start of lockdown.<\/p>\n<p>SAHRC said some families who volunteered were reintegrated. The process took about two months, it said.<\/p>\n<p>Home Affairs Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/reintegrate-or-be-repatriated-home-affairs-warns-refugees\/\">warned<\/a> the protesting refugees to return to the communities they lived in before the sit-in last year or face being sent to their original countries.<\/p>\n<p>In its parliamentary presentation, the City blamed Home Affairs for not showing interest in the refugees at the camps. \u201cRefugees and asylum seekers don\u2019t fall under the mandate of the local government. Refugees and asylum seekers remain the responsibility of Home Affairs,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt a meeting on 16 October, Home Affairs was confirmed as the leading agency in this process. Unfortunately, the representative of Home Affairs could not attend. Complaints were received in the meeting that refugees and asylum seekers said they do not have documents in order to gain access to schools or hospitals or work,\u201d the City said.<\/p>\n<p>In response, Motsoaledi said that the lockdown had set back plans to reintegrate the group. \u201cWhen refugees were moved to the Bellville site, evacuation was carried by the SAPS, officials from Home Affairs, Public Works, Social Development and Health.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ANC MP Mosa Chabane said: \u201cWe need to understand the conditions our African brothers and sisters are subjected to and practically come up with a plan on how we can intervene as a Parliament. Those that are failing to implement, such as the City and Home Affairs, must take responsibility. We need to ensure that all the laws are implemented in the interest of human rights. These two bodies must help us resolve this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>IFP MP Liezel Van der Merwe said that documenting the refugees should have continued during lockdown. \u201cI am dismayed by the absolute lack of a working relationship between Home Affairs and the City.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>EFF MP Mgcini Tshwaku said, \u201cAn oversight visit is necessary to assess their living conditions. There are children and women who need to be integrated into society for their health and other needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A date for the oversight visit to the camps is yet to be announced.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"article-copyright\">\n<p>\u00a9 2020 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/mps-give-home-affairs-and-city-a-tongue-lashing-over-refugee-camps.jpg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/\">Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The male-only marquee at the refugee camp in Bellville where MPs are expected to conduct an oversight visit soon. Archive photo: Tariro Washinyira Members of Parliament are to conduct oversight visit to two refugee camps in Cape Town. Repatriation on the cards for refugees who refuse to leave the camps. MP remarks on the lack [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-169570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/mps-give-home-affairs-and-city-a-tongue-lashing-over-refugee-camps.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}