Utter despair as refugees depart
MOVED: FOREIGN NATIONALS TAKEN TO CHATSWORTH
‘Please take me to a country where I would be able to live and work’.
Dejection and hopelessness was yesterday etched on the faces of many of the dozens of foreign nationals who had been residing at the Isipingo refugee camp following last month’s xenophobic attacks, as they left the site which had been their home for several weeks.
“It is not easy to live in a tent and all of us were hoping that after more than a month of misery, we would be taken to a place where we would be able to lead a normal life, but we are being taken to a camp once again. It is depressing,” Moses Ombeni, a national from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), who had been living at the Isipingo refugee camp since April 5, said yesterday.
Ombeni is one of the more than 100 Isipingo camp refugees who were moved to the Chatsworth refugee camp, about 20km away, by the eThekwini municipality yesterday.
The refugees, who had initially resisted the move, finally agreed to be relocated following a meeting between their representatives and the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for community safety, Willies Mchunu, earlier this week.
When The Citizen visited the Isipingo facility yesterday afternoon, the last batch of refugees – clutching on to their few belongings, were bracing themselves for the trip to Chatsworth.
Ombeni had to quit his textile factory job in Isipingo following last month’s outbreak of xenophobic attacks in area.
“I do not want to be a burden to anyone. I am a hard worker and believe in providing for my family. However, it is now clear I will no longer be able to work and live in this country. That is why I’m appealing to the South African government to take me to a country where I would be able to live and work.”