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Published on
15.04.2019 at 11:54
by
AFP
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday urged South African authorities to bring to justice the perpetrators of deadly xenophobic violence that displaced about 300 migrants from Malawi three weeks ago, but did not make any arrests.
From March 25 to 27, crowds armed with metal rods and machetes burst into the homes of foreigners in Durban, on the east coast of South Africa, to hunt down and loot their property. HRW.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has stated that at least six foreign nationals have been killed and several injured, raising fears of a resurgence of xenophobic bloodshed in a country where poor and unemployed people migrants to take their work and their allowances.
According to representatives of the Malawi High Commission, about 88 survivors of the Durban attacks requested to be returned to Malawi because they felt threatened.
Others have no choice but to return to the same informal village where they were violently chased.
"The reintegration of foreign nationals into communities without justice or accountability for past xenophobic attacks is a recipe for disaster," said HRW Director for Southern Africa Dewa Mavhinga.
"To deter those who attack foreign nationals, there is an urgent need for effective checks, arrests and prosecutions".
The absence of arrest shows "impunity for xenophobic crimes," said the guardian of human rights.
The widespread condemnation of violence sparked emergency talks between South African Foreign and Police Ministers Lindiwe Sisulu and Bheki Cele and diplomats from African countries.
HRW also urged politicians to refrain from statements that "scapegoating migrants would fuel anti-foreign violence" ahead of the May 8 general election.
He quoted remarks by President Cyril Ramaphosa at a party rally in March, when he had "accused undocumented migrants of problems and promised a crackdown."
The country hosts millions of foreigners, mostly from African countries and many undocumented migrants.
Immigrants are largely angered by chronic unemployment and the limited economic gains made by poor blacks since the end of white minority rule in 1994.
Violence erupts sporadically, targeting foreign-owned shops and the migrants themselves. Sixty-two people were killed in a wave of xenophobic violence in 2008 and at least seven in a new explosion in 2015.
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