WHILE thousands of Malawi nationals remained in limbo at the Sherwood migrant camp, the refugees living at the gates of the Department of Home Affairs Durban Refugee Centre on Che Guevara Road said they have been abandoned by their governments and relevant authorities.

Allegedly threatened with deportation, the group of around 300 refugees from Burundi, DR Congo and Rwanda found themselves stranded at the outskirts of the Sherwood camp on Tuesday.

Unable to enter the camp housing over 8000 Malawians, they sat waiting for acknowledgement with no official word on where to go. Bishop Raphael Kabambire, who was leading the group, said they eventually left around 20:00 after being told to “go elsewhere” as that was not their camp.

“We had nowhere else to go and have returned to Che Guevara Road,” said Kabambire.

Also Read: Refugee crisis deepens as hundreds flee homes across eThekwini

“We have lost everything and can’t rejoin the community like they are telling us to do. People have lost their jobs and homes because of this situation that we find ourselves in.”

Following his visit to Sherwood camp and amid the escalating crisis, eThekwini Mayor Cyril Xaba moved swiftly to accelerate the deportation process by unlocking bottlenecks and ensuring the expedited processing of cases. To ease the congestion at Sherwood, a deportation and repatriation camp has been set up in North Beach to house those in need.

Xaba was also engaging with the Department of Justice to establish two additional courts dedicated exclusively to processing undocumented foreign nationals for deportation.

“This intervention is intended to increase capacity and expedite the handling of cases,” the City said.

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