The United Democratic Movement (UDM) is calling on the South African government to pressurize the African Union to help resolve the current refugee crisis in Cape Town.
This comes after a video revealed how supporters of the leader of refugees and asylum-seekers Jean-Pierre Balous reportedly pushed and shoved police officers and court officials in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court where Balous was appearing on charges of assault.
The group of refugees and asylum seekers was removed from Greenmarket square last month where they had been squatting since October last year, demanding to be taken to another country.
UDM Chief Whip Nqabayomzi Kwankwa says this is not only a South African problem, but a continental one, which requires the AU’s intervention.
“It’s an African problem, because people are afraid to go back to their countries, because the AU keeps on shielding despotic regimes in Africa without dealing with them or holding them to account. And because people are afraid of going back to their own countries,-then that is made a problem of South Africa instead of it being debated and the resolutions being found at an AU level. South Africa must continue to pressure the AU to do something about this problem which continues to embarrass us internationally and to portray our country in a negative light.”
Parliament says the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is expected to brief the Home Affairs Committee this week on the situation of refugees in Cape Town.
The City of Cape Town and South African Human Rights Commission are also expected to brief the committee.
