Madhura Chakraborty,
Calcutta Research Group. She has been working on migrant labourers since 2011.
Since 1994--the end of
the Apartheid in South Africa--millions of migrants, particularly from
neighbouring poorer African countries have been coming to the country to seek
work and in hope of a better life. The deadly attacks across urban centres in
South Africa against migrants, primarily of African origins but also from South
Asian countries, that occurred in early 2015 started in Durban and then spread
to parts of Johannesburg. These xenophobic attacks, according to Al Jazeera[i] are a result of the rising
unemployment rates in South Africa where labour migrants are seen as a
contributory cause. According projections by the ILO[ii] the country ranks as the
eighth worst in terms of high unemployment rates. The attacks allegedly started
after a comment by the Zulu King, Goodwill Zelithini who apparently asked the
migrants to ‘pack their bags and leave’[iii] which he later denied
having made. In Johannesburg text messages circulating via the social networks
warmed foreigners to heed the Zulu King’s call to leave South Africa[iv].
Businesses by migrants
were attacked, looted and vandalised leading to many migrants fleeing their
homes. The Star, a leading daily from South Africa reports that violent mobs
even turned on journalists in some cases in Johannesburg. Thousands of migrants
fled their homes and took up shelter in camps and shops owned by the migrants
remained closed. The Star quotes Police Commissioner General Riah Phiyega as
saying the violence against foreign migrants was a criminal activity. The Star[v] quotes President Zuma who
blamed criminality as opposed to xenophobia:
“I don’t think we should use the simple word
because it is easy to use excessively. It gives a wrong impression that South
Africans are xenophobic. We are not,” said Zuma.
In the meanwhile as of 26 April the
government operated camp in Johannesburg[vi] to shelter the displaced
migrants were shut down. The camp which started with only four hundred
displaced people on 16 April saw the residents’ numbers swell to over a
thousand. The municipality officials presiding over camp management were
assured of there being no danger in going back to the communities before
closing the camp. In Durban hundreds of asylum seekers and migrants are still
in camps even as the government pushes to close the camps[vii].
Meanwhile
the police along with the South African Defence Force started a massive
stop and search programme in Johannesburg to arrest undocumented migrants in
which at least fifty were arrested as of 28 April[viii].
Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini, Gauteng police spokesperson, was quoted as
saying:
It was a stop-and-search operation... It was a
normal, crime-prevention operation.
Al Jazeera dubs the operation as one trying to end
‘anti-immigration unrest’.
As a direct result of the violence against migrants,
diplomatic relations with some neighbouring countries have worsened. Nigeria
decided to take back the envoys from Pretoria[ix]
while both Zimbabwe and Malawi governments arranged transportation for their
citizens from South Africa and Mozambique along with the other nations joined
in publicly condemning these attacks.
In South Africa itself thousands marched in anti
xenophobic rallies in both Durban and Johannesburg. Ranabir Samaddar, the Director
of Calcutta Research Group, who was visiting Johannesburg at the time, was
interviewed on Power FM 98.7. He was
quoted raising the question: “You have to ask yourself can any country do
without migrant workers?”
This remains a crucial question in today’s world of
tightening border controls and securitization where the ‘other’ is often
working-class, labour migrants who are blamed for all ills of the host country.
[i]
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2015/05/xenophobia-south-africa-150501090636029.html
[iii]http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2015/05/xenophobia-south-africa-150501090636029.html
[iv]
http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/xenophobia-panic-grips-joburg-cbd-1.1845814#.VUm44NKqqko
[v]
http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/most-south-africans-not-xenophobic-zuma-1.1849088#.VUnAbtKqqkp
[vi]
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/04/south-africa-winds-relief-camp-foreign-nationals-150426031806430.html
[vii]
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2015/05/uncertainty-clouds-fate-africa-camp-inmates-150503051536849.html
[viii]
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2015/04/foreigners-targeted-massive-police-raid-africa-150427200301574.html
[ix]
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2015/04/clone.of.south-africa-criticises-nigeria-recalling.html
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