Refugee reintegration to be stepped up

By Natasha Prince
Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The final group of refugees left living in community halls are to be moved to the three remaining safety camps set up by the city of Cape Town.

About 1 089 people, who were among the thousands displaced by xenophobic attacks in May, have been moved to Blue Waters, Youngsfield and Harmony Park and are "settling in", says city spokesperson Robert Macdonald.

A further 130 who have been living in four community halls are to be moved on Wednesday.

The City of Cape Town and provincial government have been working together in co-ordinating the move.

Macdonald said the city was satisfied with the logistics, but the weather had "made things harder".

Two hundred family tents had been erected at the three safe sites and the city was expecting to receive 230 of the 500 tents requested from the UN by on Thursday, he said.

"We are trying to improve the food situation. There is a shortage of baby formula and not enough diversity of food types. We are looking at introducing dry foods and providing cooking facilities."

The province and the city provide food through NGOs.

Muhammed Nuur, a Somali representative at the Blue Waters site, said conditions were "fine" and everything was up and running.

Hildegard Fast, head of the province's Disaster Risk Management unit, was happy with the smooth running of the move. Home Affairs had been assisting in producing access cards, she said.

It was hoped everyone would be reintegrated by next month, but officials would work with the situation "as things happen on the ground".

"We will be intensifying the reintegration and repatriation process once everyone has been moved," Fast said.

Somali business leaders in Khayelitsha said they were more at ease after meeting representatives of the Premier's Office and the Department of Community Safety on Tuesday.

Abdulkadir Karakoos, a representative of the Somali shop-owners, said officials had given a guarantee "nothing would happen" on Sunday - the deadline set by the Zanokhanyo Retailers' Association for the Somalis to close their shops.

"It feels like the government is not sitting back, it is making things happen." Also, it was reassuring that there were more visible police patrols.

The retailers' association would meet the Somalis on Wednesday, its chair, Sydwell Citwa, said.

This article was originally published on page 4 of The Cape Argus on September 10, 2008