Heavy rain that drenched temporary camps set up for victims of last week's xenophobic attacks could lead to raised tensions between factions of foreigners, the SA Human Rights Commission has warned.
Showers poured down across the Cape Town on Wednesday, leaving immigrants, many of whom have sought refuge at city-run camps across the Cape, soaked and disgruntled.
The downpour hit the Youngsfield Military Base in Ottery the hardest and rainwater had soaked the tents' groundsheets, said Judith Cohen, senior manager at the Western Cape division of the SAHRC.
She feared this could worsen tensions between immigrants of different nationalities, who have already split into factions.
At the Soetwater camp, the make-up of the residents in each tent was split along gender lines and nationality.
Zimbabwean men, for example, would not sleep in the same tent as Somali men.
"Everyone there is cold and wet, the tents just seem utterly inadequate for the weather we are having.
"The conditions at the camps are already worrying; rain is merely going to exacerbate the tensions," said Cohen.
Somali Tilo Ahmed, at the Soetwater camp, said the rain was only making their circumstances more difficult because they were sleeping on the ground.
"It is already cold here at night and we sleep in tents. We only get a few blankets, not enough to keep us warm.
"With this rain now, our problems are just becoming bigger and bigger," he said.
Some immigrants also complained that rainwater had seeped through a few of the tents.
At Youngsfield, displaced people pleaded for humanitarian aid.
Somali leader Sheik Hussein said residents had not slept last night because of the windy and wet conditions within the camps.
The tents had been leaking throughout the night and most people, including children, did not get any sleep.
Fellow Somali Abdul Guure said: "The conditions here are very bad, the tents are wet inside and out, the children are wet, we are wet and there's a lot of water in the tents.
"Please help us."
Congolese Assumani Kisale said that at the Youngsfield camp, they felt like animals.
"It's cold, it's wet and it's leaking! Really, we are like animals in here," he said.
The military base was not an ideal facility to house civilians, said Colonel Peter Kobbie, commanding officer of Youngsfield Military Base.
Soldiers were trained to live under those conditions, he said. He suggested that women and children be removed from the base because of the poor conditions.
"We don't have any other facilities to house them. We initially thought that this was going to be a temporary thing.
"We are trying our best to make them as comfortable as possible here. This is really not an ideal situation," Kobbie said.
Meanwhile, Cohen said they would monitor the situation at the camps, using a network of monitors, to ensure the foreigners' human rights were not infringed.
"The commission has been playing a big role behind the scenes engaging with the different groups. It is very clear that there is a need for an independent body to monitor the camps, which we have been asked to do by the refugees themselves," she said.
"This is because many of them already have a strong distrust of government officials from experience in their battles to get refugee status." - Cape Argus
Showers poured down across the Cape Town on Wednesday, leaving immigrants, many of whom have sought refuge at city-run camps across the Cape, soaked and disgruntled.
The downpour hit the Youngsfield Military Base in Ottery the hardest and rainwater had soaked the tents' groundsheets, said Judith Cohen, senior manager at the Western Cape division of the SAHRC.
| 'It's cold, it's wet and it's leaking' |
At the Soetwater camp, the make-up of the residents in each tent was split along gender lines and nationality.
Zimbabwean men, for example, would not sleep in the same tent as Somali men.
"Everyone there is cold and wet, the tents just seem utterly inadequate for the weather we are having.
"The conditions at the camps are already worrying; rain is merely going to exacerbate the tensions," said Cohen.
| 'We initially thought that this was going to be a temporary thing' |
"It is already cold here at night and we sleep in tents. We only get a few blankets, not enough to keep us warm.
"With this rain now, our problems are just becoming bigger and bigger," he said.
Some immigrants also complained that rainwater had seeped through a few of the tents.
At Youngsfield, displaced people pleaded for humanitarian aid.
Somali leader Sheik Hussein said residents had not slept last night because of the windy and wet conditions within the camps.
The tents had been leaking throughout the night and most people, including children, did not get any sleep.
Fellow Somali Abdul Guure said: "The conditions here are very bad, the tents are wet inside and out, the children are wet, we are wet and there's a lot of water in the tents.
"Please help us."
Congolese Assumani Kisale said that at the Youngsfield camp, they felt like animals.
"It's cold, it's wet and it's leaking! Really, we are like animals in here," he said.
The military base was not an ideal facility to house civilians, said Colonel Peter Kobbie, commanding officer of Youngsfield Military Base.
Soldiers were trained to live under those conditions, he said. He suggested that women and children be removed from the base because of the poor conditions.
"We don't have any other facilities to house them. We initially thought that this was going to be a temporary thing.
"We are trying our best to make them as comfortable as possible here. This is really not an ideal situation," Kobbie said.
Meanwhile, Cohen said they would monitor the situation at the camps, using a network of monitors, to ensure the foreigners' human rights were not infringed.
"The commission has been playing a big role behind the scenes engaging with the different groups. It is very clear that there is a need for an independent body to monitor the camps, which we have been asked to do by the refugees themselves," she said.
"This is because many of them already have a strong distrust of government officials from experience in their battles to get refugee status." - Cape Argus
No comments:
Post a Comment