November 2008 | Vol 1 | Issue 47
Refugee centres to be kept open to help close them to open them for closure
PRETORIA. The South African government has outlined its plan for the refugee camps that were erected around the country after xenophobic attacks earlier this year. According to a spokesman, all camps that are currently open, or not closed, will be kept open, except the ones that are closed, and these will be opened until they are closed in order to open the closed camps, or vice versa.
Speaking to a media briefing in Pretoria this morning, Home Affairs spokesman Xolani Auslander-Raus explained that the action plan represented a "decisive, clear and concrete" resolution on the fate of refugees who have not yet been reintegrated into their original communities.
He said that refugees who were forced to leave the camps voluntarily, and who had chosen not to return because they had originally chosen to leave the places to which they had returned after leaving their countries of origin, would now be required to volunteer to return to camps that were still open, or else camps that were now closed would be opened to accommodate them on condition that they were only open for as long as it took to close them again.
The plan has been hailed by human rights organisations, who agree that it provides a humane alternative to sending foreigners back to communities still boiling with anger.
"Before, we were facing the likelihood of people being forced back to be burnt alive in their shacks," said rights watch activist Ninja February.
"But this is much more humane. Now refugees will be able to die quickly, painlessly and close to amenities, either of a stroke or a massive aneurysm brought on by reading and trying to understand the new plan."
However she warned that Home Affairs needed to be clearer on its policy regarding the installation of public toilets at the remaining camps.
According to the proposed strategy each camp will be fitted with thirty public toilets where such toilets don't exist or are no longer functioning, unless the toilets have been removed in order to facilitate the installation of new toilets, having already been installed and removed in order to facilitate the removal of newly installed toilets, and vice versa, unless already installed, in which case they will be removed.
"Government need to sort this out quickly," she said, "or there's going to be big kak.
"Especially if they install the Porta-Loos with the doors locked, like they did last time."
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