South Africa’s humanitarian crisis at borders and refugee centres

We now face a humanitarian crisis at refugee centres in Cape Town where Home Affairs are conducting drawn-out processes to repatriate or reintegrate refugee groupings. This weekend at the Paint City site in Belville, sanitation and ablution facilities were removed by the UNHCR, who had stepped in on a temporary emergency basis after the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) previous unilateral withdrawal of sanitation. Now the UNHCR contract for sanitation has also come to an end at the DPWI shelter being provided to refugees at Paint City. A DPWI spokesperson has referred the latest withdrawal of sanitation to Home Affairs when questioned.