The Methodist Church in the center of Cape Town is completely overcrowded. Everywhere piled luggage, people are in the hallways and sitting on the benches. The air is stuffy, the mood is tense. Again and again, there are disputes. Most of them have not slept properly for more than three weeks.
So does Sylvie Nahimana, who sits exhausted on the ground. She is from Burundi, has been living in South Africa for 21 years. Since then, xenophobia is increasing every year. "I'm just angry," she says. "I want to get away, to some place where we are safe - and how people are treated, not like cockroaches."
Sylvie Nahimana in conversation with DW correspondent Adrian Kriesch
Batons, tear gas, water cannons
For three weeks she had camped in front of the United Nations refugee center office in Cape Town, together with dozens of other migrants. They say: In South Africa they are no longer safe after a wave of xenophobic violence in September. And they want to be taken to another country. But instead of a solution came on Wednesday, the police. They passed a court order prohibiting migrants from camping in front of the building. With truncheons, tear gas and water cannons.
Sylvie Nahimana was injured on the arm. 100 migrants were arrested for a short time - because they refused to vacate the place. "If a policeman pulls a child away from a mother, then my children will have no future in this country," says Nahimana. Her three children were born in South Africa. But until today, they have not received birth certificates. The system is slow and discriminatory. Now the family is seeking refuge with 300 other migrants in the church in the center, which they spontaneously picked up after the police intervention.
Migrants in a church at Greenmarket Square in Cape Town
South Africans donate food
Some South Africans have come to help. They bring food, water, diapers. He was disgusted by the police and xenophobia, says an elderly gentleman. In addition, Ali Sablay from the aid organization "Give of the Givers" invites food from a truck - reminiscent of the apartheid times in which South Africans have found refuge in other African countries. "We are all Africans, we must respect each other. Xenophobia has no business here, we should help each other instead of fighting each other. "
Ali Sablay calls for an end to xenophobia in South Africa
South Africa is one of the strongest economic countries on the continent - and the destination of migrants from all over Africa. They flee from wars, economic crises, lack of prospects and hunger in their home countries. 270,000 refugees live officially in the country. The number of undocumented migrants without residence permits is likely to be significantly higher. There are no exact figures, the estimates vary between 500,000 and 5 million. But the economy is in crisis: nearly 60 percent youth unemployment, exploding public debt, massive inequality. Twenty-five years after the end of apartheid, the majority of the population is still living in poverty - and anger is increasingly directed against migrants.
Destination: Dubai, Europe or Canada
But the case of the protesting migrant group in Cape Town is a special one. They come from ten different countries, including the Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Bangladesh. And most of them do not want to go back to their homeland. Even there, they say, it's not safe. Dubai, Europe or Canada - that would be the ideal solution for many.
Refugee spokesman JP Balous refuses to leave the church on Greenmarket Square
Therefore, some critics of xenophobic violence see the migrants in the church rather as a knight of fortune than as a victim. "They want a free trip to Canada, spending days and nights with toddlers on the street in the open air," comments a South African on the DW Africa Facebook page. "This is blackmail! They used their children as shields against eviction." Another South African writes: "I live in Cape Town - and there was no xenophobic violence here."
No solution in sight
In fact, the recent xenophobic riots did not take place in Cape Town, but in other cities in South Africa. Right next to the Methodist Church on Greenmarket Square in Cape Town is a large African art market. Many dealers come from abroad - and feel well. "They just bother us here," says a trader from Malawi, pointing to the protesters in front of the church. He sells masks to tourists - who have stayed away since the riots. "I have not sold since the morning, and yesterday I did not earn a cent - and today the same".
Some traders at Greenmarket Square also criticize the refugees
How it goes for the migrants is completely unclear. The UN refugee agency has asked them to return to their homes in Cape Town. "We stay here, and if the church no longer wants us, we'll go back to sleep on the street," says JP Balous, a spokesman for the Migrants Group from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sylvie Nahimana nods determinedly. Next to her is all her belongings in a few travel bags. "If there was peace in my homeland, I would go back," says the woman from Burundi. "But there is no peace - so they should take me somewhere I'm sure."
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