Somali foreign nationals walk through a damaged camp site at a temporary refugees camp in Soetwater after a spate of xenophobic violence in 2008. (AFP/Gianluigi Guercia)
Wednesday, April 01, 2015
JOHANNESBURG: Bengali shop owners Abu Bashar and Faruk Mohammed left behind family and friends in Bangladesh for a better life in South Africa. But the welcome they found was not what they hoped for and now they fear for their lives.
Mr Bashar was attacked in his convenience shop in Soweto on the outskirts of Johannesburg and beaten so badly, he lost sight in his left eye.
“While I’m operating there, at the same time they are coming. It's six or seven South African people, they are coming. They say they want money,” he told Channel NewsAsia.
“I say take my money, he take 300 or 400 (South African Rand) like that, the money he’s taking. I say please never beat me, take money, no problem. Others at the same time, they beat me and shoot me,” he said.
Foreigners in South Africa have suffered such attacks over the past decade with more than 60 people killed and dozens injured in 2008 alone. The latest attacks started earlier this year when a 14-year-old boy was accused of trying to rob a store and was shot by a foreign owner.
“I tried going back there. People say you can't come, they will not allow, If you come back, he will try to kill me,” said Mr Mohamed.
Estimates vary widely on the number of foreigners in South Africa, from one to ten million, as many are illegal immigrants. Some South Africans see them as taking jobs and services in a country where unemployment stands at a staggering 25 percent.
“It relates certainly to the vulnerability or perceived vulnerability of non-nationals as a group but also because there are criminal elements. Non-nationals as a group lack the confidence in the protection systems," said Chantal Kisoon, the Provincial Manager of the South African Human Rights Commission.
Many foreigners in South Africa are seen as easy targets for random violence or robbery because they are unlikely to complain to police. Many of them end up at the door of Ali Osman, a Somali activist who helps victims of xenophobic crimes and the National Secretary of the Somali Community Board.
"We can say that the whole government is seemingly turning a blind eye to the happenings and this kind of violence, which is happening to migrants in the country,” he said.
Abu Bashar and Faruk Mohammed are too afraid to go back to their homes and businesses and have become refugees yet again. They are now been left wondering what their future holds.