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- Around 100 refugees have been camping outside the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Pretoria since May 2022.
- On Friday, they were evicted following a court order.
- Some of them were taken to Lindela Repatriation Centre, while others took their belongings and walked down the road to a nearby mall.
More than a dozen refugees evicted from their shacks next to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) offices in Pretoria have walked down the road to a nearby mall where they are now sitting idly with their belongings.
Around 100 people have been living on pavements, tents and makeshift structures outside the offices in Brooklyn since May 2022, demanding that they be given asylum in other countries because of the xenophobia they experienced in South Africa.
A court order was eventually obtained to evict them and their children.
The eviction order was carried out on Friday morning by the sheriff of the court, with the assistance of police, immigration officials and social services.
READ | About 100 refugees evicted after camping outside UNHCR's Pretoria offices
The eviction order gave the refugees two options.
They could either be taken to the Lindela Repatriation Centre in Gauteng, where they would be housed and fed for six months, and could come and go as they please.
The other option was to take their belongings and leave the area.
If any refugee refused to leave, they would be arrested and charged.
While visibly unhappy and reluctant, a number of the refugees loaded themselves into police and immigration vehicles to be taken to Lindela.
However, a large group refused to go to the repatriation centre, likening it to a concentration camp.
One woman from the Democratic Republic of the Congo said she and her son would not step foot in Lindela.
She said:
The group packed their belongings and moved about 200 metres down the road from the UNHCR premises, before settling next to the Brooklyn Mall.
They sat on the pavement there as police and immigration officials continued their operation to ensure that no one was left in the shacks.
By lunch time, the City of Tshwane had brought in a team to destroy the shacks that the refugees had called home for the last year.
READ | Refugees camping outside of UN offices in Pretoria refuse to leave despite eviction order
Some of them were still removing their valuables, including beds and blankets, on makeshift trolleys, while already emptied shacks were dismantled and loaded onto trucks.
2019 eviction
The evictions on Friday were reminiscent of events in 2019, albeit with less chaos, when almost 300 refugees camped outside the UNHCR, also demanding expatriation to other countries.
An eviction order was also obtained against this first group. However, before it could be carried out, the refugees broke into the UNHCR's premises.
This led to trespassing charges and, when police attempted to effect arrests, many of the refugees resisted physically and threw rocks at officers.
Some were arrested, charged and convicted, while others were detained and taken to the Lindela.
At least 50 from the 2019 group were among those evicted on Friday, after the Department of Home Affairs dropped them off at the UNHCR after they had been detained at Lindela.
