Image Source: GroundUp
Africa – Volunteer and events coordinator at AMA, Mohammed Tahir Hamid, said food is the most pressing need for the thousands of foreign nationals passing through the repatriation site outside Musina, with many arriving exhausted after travelling long distances from across South Africa.
The border town has become the focal point of the country’s migration debate as the government ramps up immigration enforcement.
Africa Muslims Agency (AMA) has been working alongside several other organisations to provide relief at the site, set up on farmland a few kilometres outside the town, where the police, the department of immigration and humanitarian groups are all operating together to process those being repatriated.
“When those foreigners do come into this repatriation centre, there is obviously a need for food. They’ve been travelling many kilometres to get to this point, so obviously come in very hungry, very weak.”
Thousands Moving Through the Site Daily
Hygiene items such as soap, wet wipes, nappies and toilet rolls are also being distributed to those waiting to be moved on to their respective countries. Those in the camps are mainly Zimbabwean and Malawian nationals, arriving on buses from Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.
Hamid said the numbers at the site change constantly, with buses arriving and departing throughout the day and crowds growing and shrinking by the thousands. Feeding and hygiene support has to keep pace with whoever is on the ground at any given time.
“Buses coming in by the hundreds, I mean literally lots and lots of buses are coming in, but at the same time buses are leaving as well. The situation currently in Musina is that you’re looking at a fluctuation of numbers. At one point you were looking at 15,000, then dropped to 10,000.”
Difficult Conditions For Those Travelling
Hamid said conditions are difficult for those travelling, with many arriving tired, fatigued, and ill, and that volunteer doctors are providing medical support at the various sites to the best of their ability. He added that it is impossible to predict how long the response will be needed, as sites appear to wind down before numbers build up again.
“As far as foreseeing how long this is going to go on, it’s very difficult to say. The numbers obviously are fluctuating day in and day out.”
