Refugees evicted from UNHCR in 2023 reduced to eating frogs

• It’s been almost two years since refugees were evicted from the premises of the UNHCR in Pretoria and their living conditions have deteriorated.
• They are now living in an old school building in a remote part of Bronkhorstspruit. They say they have been abandoned and forgotten.
• They want to be moved to another country rather than being integrated into local communities which they say are xenophobic.
• But the UNHCR says resettlement in another country is a limited option for which the families in Bronkhorstpruit do not qualify.

Refugees who were evicted from outside the Pretoria offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) two years ago say they would rather starve than expose their children to xenophobia.

The group of about 16 families are living in an old school building in Bronkhorstpruit, between Pretoria and Emalahleni. They were among 33 families who camped outside UNHCR’s offices for a year before being evicted in 2023 and moved to the old school. Instead of returning to their homes in townships around Gauteng or their countries of origin, they want to be resettled in a third country.

The Pretoria High Court granted an eviction order in August 2022, which was carried out in April 2023. About 15 families had opted to go to the Lindela Repatriation Centre, while others chose to live on the streets with their children. Mountains and Valleys Ministries then stepped in to provide shelter at one of its old schools, located in a remote part of Bronkhorstspruit. The building has four rooms but no electricity and only two toilets which are not in good condition. There is one tap a few metres away.

The school is off the main road, on a long dirt road. There are no shops, clinics, or schools nearby.

When GroundUp visited the group, we found a group of children outside, scraping the sides of a near-empty pot of pap cooked the previous night.

Two men arrived with a few frogs. They said they hunted frogs in a nearby pond to bring something to their empty-bellied families.

“We don’t know when we last had real meat. We would rather eat frogs to keep our meat cravings at bay …That’s how terrible life has become,” said Johnson Kadima, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kadima has not seen his three children since they were evicted from the UNHCR. He said his wife was initially taken to Lindela but returned without the children. He said they have struggled to get answers from the state about the children’s whereabouts. He hopes to find them and resettle with them in another country.

Some of the refugees sleep in a makeshift shelter.

Families have divided the school with curtains but there is barely space to move. Outside is a worn-out tent where more people sleep, also divided with curtains. Some families have moved out of the tent and made their own shelters.

The mobile clinic, which used to come to the families, broke down over a month ago, leaving them without easy access to medication and treatment.

Since the eviction in 2023, children have not attended school nor have they been in contact with many people outside of the camp.

The refugees say only a few well-wishers have visited them to bring them food and other supplies since they’ve lived there. They have a vegetable garden, but it doesn’t yield enough to sustain them.

Despite these challenges, the refugees have refused offers from Lawyers for Human Rights and from faith-based organisations to move them closer to town or to organise schooling for their children. They say they do not want their children to encounter anti-immigrant sentiments at schools or continue facing documentation struggles.

Women cook outside to avoid sewage running from blocked toilets.

“If our children go to school, then it should be out of South Africa. That is why we are still begging to be taken to another country,” said Felix Kifoto, a father of three children.

Flora Masamba worries about her 8-year-old son’s future because he has never been to school. But she wants him to start school on another continent.

Delphen Mukendi, 11, said he does not want to go back to a South African school because “children treated me like an animal and took my lunch because I was a foreigner”.

Josephine Bitondo shares this space with a dozen other people.

Lance Thomas from the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Faith and Community has been working with Lawyers for Human Rights to help the families. He said many options, like moving the refugees to better shelters and integrating them into communities with job opportunities, had been turned down.

According to Thomas, people who used to help with food and funds stopped helping after the families refused to accept other assistance. He said they were considering taking the families to the Mozambican border.

“We have met Home Affairs and the UNHCR but nothing has changed. We are planning campaigns to get everyone on board so that we can find solutions,” said Thomas.

Resettlement not possible

Jan De Bisschop, spokesperson for UNHCR, said the agency was concerned about the families’ welfare but was not assisting them as a group.

“We do not wish to see refugees, particularly the children, living in those unsanitary conditions, which is why we are urging refugees to either reintegrate into communities or once in their communities, to take up the offer of voluntary repatriation if they are interested in this solution…the refugees have declined this support,” De Bisschop told GroundUp.

De Biscchop said the refugees were also offered assistance with voluntary repatriation to their countries of origin, but this offer was also refused. He said resettlement to a third country is a “very limited option” worldwide and “subject to quotas offered by receiving countries.” Group reviews are not included in the UNHCR’s “well-defined system for resettlement,” he said.

Resettlement is a “life-saving measure” reserved for those “most at risk, including survivors of violence or torture, women and children at risk, and individuals with legal or physical protection needs,” De Biscchop said.

He said refugee children in South Africa had access to education and the parents of refugee children had a critical responsibility to ensure their enrolment in school. “Many refugee families endure profound trauma and instability caused by displacement, conflict, or persecution. In these circumstances, education serves as a beacon of hope and a pathway to rebuilding their lives. “

If refugee families encountered difficulties enrolling their children in school, they could contact UNHCR via its hotline, De Bisschop said.

Published originally on GroundUp.

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Compiled by Betha Madhomu