Police remove migrants amid clashes at UN office
The police faced violent resistance yesterday as they removed hundreds of migrants from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) offices in Pretoria.
A large number of officers moved through the property, some carrying shields with the arresting officers behind them.
Many of the foreigners resisted arrest and fought back, bashing the police shields and throwing rocks, cans of food, water buckets and other items at the officers.
Some sat in a group and refused to move or be removed.
The police used force to detain the foreigners, but no rubber bullets, stun grenades or tear gas were used during the operation.
At least four officers were injured by rocks hurled at them. Police spokesperson Brigadier Mathapelo Peters confirmed the injuries, saying the officers were treated by paramedics at the scene.
Some of the refugees were also injured during the clashes.
Dozens of women and crying children pleaded with police to leave them alone, accusing them of being xenophobic.
The hour-long operation ended as the last group of migrants handed themselves over.
Men were loaded into police trucks and taken to Brooklyn police station.
Brigadier Peters said women with children would be handed over to the social development department and taken to places of safety.
“What we have tried to do is to keep them with their mothers, not to separate them from their mothers.
“But those women who don’t have children were arrested alongside the men.”
Peters said immigration officials would conduct a verification process to ascertain the status of the foreigners arrested inside the UN compound.
A case of trespassing was opened against the migrants after they forced their way onto the UNHCR premises on Thursday morning in an attempt to avoid a Gauteng high court order that was handed down in Pretoria on Wednesday.
The order, which was served on them by the sheriff of the high court, gave the foreigners three days to vacate the area.
They want to be resettled in another country as they fear a resurgence of xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
Since the beginning of October, the migrants have been living on pavements outside the UNHCR’s
offices in tents and makeshift structures.
This led to the Waterkloof Homeowners’ Association and Brooklyn and Eastern Areas Citizens’ Association launching an urgent application against the foreigners.
The associations argued that the migrants, who are the first respondents in the application, were in contravention of municipal by-laws and other applicable laws.
– News24 Wire