No bail for 188 ‘trespassing’ refugees

Chose to represent themselves and cost of freedom was too high.

Atotal of 189 refugees and asylum seekers appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Monday after they entered the premises of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) last week.

They faced charges of trespassing. A case of public violence is also being investigated.

The state prosecutor said the state is still waiting for affidavits from some witnesses, but police have ascertained what roles the people on trial played during the alleged trespassing.

One man chose to apply for bail and to use the services of Legal Aid. The rest represented themselves and did not apply for bail – which the magistrate advised would be difficult to grant, given the majority do not have fixed addresses.

Aline Bukuru, a refugee leader who is not on trial but who was in court, believed they do not have money for private representation and do not trust the freely accessible legal representation.

The accused are mostly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and there is only one woman in the group.

While they will be tried on an individual basis, they appeared in seven groups of between four and 31 people to make the case manageable for the court.

As the first group left, they chanted, “No more South Africa” and “xenophobia”.

The accused were among about 500 people who entered the UNHCR premises on Thursday last week, according to a police statement. They were removed last Friday by police in a clash that resulted in injuries on both sides.

For about a month before, about 700 refugees had been staying in temporary structures outside the UN agency.

The local home-owners’ association successfully applied for an order to have the group evicted. This led to the refugees entering the UNHCR offices.

Most have asked to be resettled to a third country (not SA nor their country of origin) following recent xenophobic attacks.

Republished from groundup. org.za