By Craig Mckune and Christina Taylor
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Those at Youngsfield had until midnight on Tuesday night to apply for reintegration assistance. If they now refuse to leave, the SA National Defence Force - which owns the land - may apply for an eviction order.
Cronje said the same applied to Blue Waters, but the deadline is Friday at midnight. If people did not leave voluntarily "then the city will take legal action to remove (them) from the site".
Christina Henda, director of the Cape Town Refugee Centre - which is implementing the reintegration assistance - said she was aware of the deadlines and on Tuesday went to Youngsfield to assist people further.
She said she was confident that those who wanted assistance at Blue Waters could be helped before midnight on Friday.
At Youngsfield, Ali Mohammed and Siad Ndikumana from Burundi said they had not heard of this information and were still waiting to be repatriated.
"We can't understand this story. What is this formula between repatriation and reintegration?" said Mohammed.
Ben Ilunga a volunteer from the Democratic Republic of Congo, said: "We still have people who filled out the forms for assistance, but up to now they (have not been) helped."
Camp residents cited numerous reports of recent violent crimes against foreigners to highlight why they did not want to reintegrate.
A Somali man, Muse Ali Farah, was fatally shot on Monday evening in his shop in Nomzamo. Another was injured and remained in Tygerberg Hospital on Tuesday afternoon.
Captain Andries Geldenhuys at the Nomzamo station said the man was in "very serious condition".
Geldenhuys said the attacks appeared to be part of a robbery. "Some money was taken".
Asad Abdullahi, a spokesperson for the Somali community at Blue Waters, said the attack was yet another "intolerable" affront.
"We are helpless, we are hopeless in this country".
Ilunga said people were also worried because they did not know how long the repatriation would take after they returned to local communities.
"There is no information, no pamphlets and no time agenda for repatriation".
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Olivier Beer said it was difficult to give a time frame to repatriation because it requires a lengthy process of documentation and verification.
Another problem, he said, was that the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which has also offered repatriation assistance, had exhausted its funds.
According to their mandate, Beer said UNHCR could only offer repatriation assistance to those with asylum status.
Those without had been dealing with IOM.
But he said UNHCR was also advocating for IOM to get more funds.
Of those opting for repatriation and who did not want to reintegrate, Beer said the UNHCR had spoken to "a series of NGOs who are trying to accommodate these people".
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