Refugees in South Africa fear new attacks as September 30 deadline looms

Refugees in Durban say they have nowhere safe to return to after being forced from a makeshift camp.

Anti-immigrant protesters march in Durban, South Africa, on June 30, 2026, amid calls by anti-immigrant groups for undocumented migrants to leave the country [Rogan Ward/Reuters]

Durban, South Africa – Bishop Raphael Bahebwa is in hiding, afraid he could be attacked for speaking out for the rights of foreigners in South Africa.

“I am in hiding now because they say they are going to kill me for speaking about the rights of foreigners,” he told Al Jazeera.

Bahebwa has lived in South Africa for 26 years, after arriving as a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

In that time, he has watched antiforeigner sentiment flare repeatedly in the country he came to call home. But he says this year feels different.

A September 30 deadline declared by March and March, an anti-immigration movement that has led protests across South Africa this year, has renewed fears of violence among migrant communities.

The group has called for undocumented foreign nationals to leave South Africa and has warned of further demonstrations if its demands are not met.

For Bahebwa and other refugees in Durban, however, the distinction between documented and undocumented migrants offers little comfort. They say the hostility they experience on the streets rarely begins with a request to see their papers.

Fears of renewed violence

South Africa will hold local government elections on November 4, in a campaign in which migration has become an increasingly prominent political and social issue.

For months, Bahebwa was among hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers who slept on the pavement outside the Durban Refugee Reception Centre on Che Guevara Road.

Many were from the DRC and Burundi, with others from Uganda, Mozambique and Tanzania. They said they had fled their communities because they feared antiforeigner attacks.

They arrived outside the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) office seeking safety.

Instead, the pavement became their home.

For roughly four months, men, women and children slept outside, exposed to the elements and dependent on civil society organisations and volunteers for food and other necessities.

“It has been very tough,” Bahebwa said. “Never before have I experienced something like this.”

Some of the migrants told Al Jazeera that conditions became desperate. They described irregular access to food and medication and said one man who had tuberculosis died while living at the camp. Al Jazeera has not independently established the circumstances of his death.

The camp was also not far removed from the hostility its residents said they had fled.

On September 3, members of March and March confronted refugees and asylum seekers living outside the centre. Violence broke out, and police intervened. At least four people were reported injured.

At another protest days later, police officers stood between the two groups, forming a barrier as tensions rose.

March and March has described its mobilisation as a campaign against undocumented immigration, crime and deteriorating conditions in South African communities.

The group says the government’s response to immigration enforcement has been insufficient.

Its leaders have repeatedly rejected accusations that their campaign is xenophobic and insist their target is undocumented migration rather than foreign nationals generally.

Bahebwa said documented and undocumented migrants alike have been caught in the hostility.

Earlier this year, six refugees working in salons around Durban’s Warwick Street Market were beaten by men carrying sticks, according to public-interest news outlet GroundUp. Two were hospitalised.

Bahebwa said the migrants had also struggled to obtain help from the authorities after earlier attacks.

“Police said we can’t open cases because we are foreigners. We had nowhere to go,” he alleged. Police have not publicly responded to that specific allegation.

Nowhere obvious to return to

In mid-September, the government moved to clear the makeshift camp outside the refugee centre.

The refugees were given a choice: return to the communities they had fled or accept temporary accommodation at the Lindela facility in Gauteng, hundreds of kilometres from Durban. Lindela is a government-run immigration detention facility used to hold people facing deportation.

The choice divided them.

Malawi migrants to South Africa line up for supplies at an informal refugee camp in Sherwood, Durban, South Africa, after fleeing their homes amid fears of xenophobic attacks [File: EPA]

Some feared going to Lindela, a facility historically associated with immigration detention and repatriation. Others felt they could no longer endure life on the pavement.

On September 15, 274 people were transported by bus from Durban to Lindela. About 150 others chose to remain in Durban and began trying to find alternative accommodation.

For those who stayed behind, leaving the pavement did not resolve the problem that had brought them there in the first place.

Kafuti Muyumba, a small business owner from the DRC and a representative of the refugee community, said many were afraid to return to neighbourhoods where they had built businesses and lives.

People are afraid, he said. “Even the police allow March and March violence. They came with sticks and say we are attacking them,” Muyumba told Al Jazeera.

He said many refugees had lost their livelihoods during the months of upheaval and were now desperate to find accommodation.

“This is not the first time we are experiencing xenophobia,” he said. “In 2008 and then in 2015 we also experienced this.”

In 2008, xenophobic violence spread through townships and informal settlements, killing dozens and displacing thousands.

Further outbreaks of violence against foreign nationals followed in subsequent years.

For Muyumba, those memories make the rhetoric surrounding September 30 difficult to dismiss.

“We don’t trust the police. They are not being fair with us. Some of them are also saying we must go,” he said.

Police have said there are no plans to change their normal policing approach because of the September 30 deadline and that any protesters will be expected to remain within the law.

March and March said all it wants is for undocumented immigrants to leave the country and return home.

But Muyumba said returning to the DRC is not a viable alternative for many Congolese refugees.

“There is still war there,” he said.

A country tightening its borders

In response to ongoing protests, the South African government said it had intensified its immigration enforcement.

Between June 14 and August 20, authorities processed 86,596 foreign nationals for deportation and repatriation, according to the government’s Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration.

Malawians made up the largest group, followed by Zimbabweans and Mozambicans.

Government data says 90 percent of those repatriated had entered South Africa illegally, while 95 percent were classified as having crossed the border outside official ports of entry.

The government says the operations form part of a broader effort to strengthen border management and enforce immigration law.

At the same time, officials have repeatedly warned private groups against taking immigration enforcement into their own hands.

March and March’s September 30 deadline has no legal authority. The government says common citizens cannot deport anyone from South Africa.

Protesters hold placards during an anti-immigration march in Durban, South Africa, calling for tighter border controls and the deportation of undocumented migrants [File: Thuli Dlamini/Reuters]

But deadlines do not need legal force to create fear, as was the case for an earlier deadline of June 30. For the refugees who spent months sleeping outside the DHA office in Durban, September 30 is another uncertainty layered on top of many others.

Some have been moved hundreds of kilometres away.

Others are trying to find new homes in the same communities they once fled. But among the migrants Al Jazeera spoke to, there is a shared anxiety that paperwork may offer limited protection when anger is directed first at being foreign.

Bahebwa has spent more than a quarter of a century in South Africa. For now, he says he is hiding and does not know what September 30 will bring.

“They are scapegoating us as foreigners,” he said. “It is not going to end on September 30. It has to do with the elections.”

德班的难民表示，他们被迫离开临时营地后，没有安全的地方可以返回。

2026年6月30日，反移民抗议者在南非德班游行，反移民团体呼吁无证移民离开该国。[Rogan Ward/路透社]

南非德班——拉斐尔·巴赫布瓦主教因担心自己为在南非的外国人争取权利而遭到攻击，目前正躲藏起来。

“我现在躲藏起来，因为他们说要杀了我，因为我谈论外国人的权利，”他告诉半岛电视台。

巴赫布瓦在南非生活了 26 年，他最初是以难民身份从刚果民主共和国（DRC）来到南非的。

在那段时间里，他亲眼目睹了他视为家园的这个国家里反外国人情绪的反复爆发。但他表示，今年的感觉有所不同。

今年在南非各地领导抗议活动的反移民运动“三月与三月”宣布9月30日为最后期限，这再次引发了移民社区对暴力事件的担忧。

该组织呼吁无证外国公民离开南非，并警告说，如果他们的要求得不到满足，将举行进一步的示威活动。

然而，对于巴赫布瓦和其他在德班的难民来说，区分合法移民和非法移民并不能带来多少安慰。他们说，他们在街头遭遇的敌意很少是从要求查看他们的证件开始的。

担心暴力事件再次发生

南非将于11月4日举行地方政府选举，在这次竞选活动中，移民问题日益凸显，成为一个重要的政治和社会议题。

几个月来，巴赫布瓦和数百名难民和寻求庇护者一起睡在切·格瓦拉路上的德班难民接待中心外的人行道上。

他们中许多人来自刚果民主共和国和布隆迪，还有一些来自乌干达、莫桑比克和坦桑尼亚。他们说，他们逃离家园是因为害怕遭到反外国人袭击。

他们抵达内政部（DHA）办公室外寻求庇护。

相反，人行道成了它们的家。

大约四个月的时间里，男女老少露宿街头，饱受风吹雨打，依靠民间社会组织和志愿者提供食物和其他必需品。

“这太难熬了，”巴赫布瓦说。“我以前从未经历过这样的事情。”

一些移民告诉半岛电视台，营地里的情况变得极其糟糕。他们描述了食物和药品供应不稳定的情况，并表示一名患有肺结核的男子在营地去世。半岛电视台尚未独立核实该男子的死因。

该营地距离居民们所说的他们逃离的敌对环境也不远。

9月3日，“三月与三月”组织的成员与居住在难民营外的难民和寻求庇护者发生冲突。冲突升级，警方介入。据报道，至少有四人受伤。

几天后的另一次抗议活动中，随着紧张局势升级，警察站在两派人马之间，形成一道屏障。

March and March 将其动员活动描述为一场反对非法移民、犯罪和南非社区状况恶化的运动。

该组织表示，政府对移民执法的应对措施不足。

该组织的领导人一再否认他们的运动是仇外的，并坚称他们的目标是非法移民，而不是所有外国公民。

巴赫布瓦表示，有证件的移民和无证件的移民都受到了这种敌对情绪的影响。

据公益新闻媒体GroundUp报道，今年早些时候，六名在德班沃里克街市场附近美发店工作的难民遭到几名手持棍棒的男子殴打，其中两人被送往医院。

巴赫布瓦表示，此前的袭击事件发生后，这些移民也很难从当局获得帮助。

他声称：“警方说我们不能立案，因为我们是外国人。我们无处可去。”警方尚未对此指控作出公开回应。

没有明显的返回之处

9月中旬，政府开始清理难民中心外的临时营地。

难民们面临两个选择：要么返回他们逃离的社区，要么接受位于豪登省林德拉拘留中心的临时安置，该中心距离德班数百公里。林德拉是政府运营的移民拘留中心，用于关押面临遣返的人员。

这个选择让他们产生了分歧。

在南非德班舍伍德的一个非正式难民营，马拉维移民排队领取物资。他们因担心遭受仇外袭击而逃离家园。[图片：EPA]

有些人害怕被送往林德拉拘留中心，那里历来与移民拘留和遣返有关。另一些人则觉得他们再也无法忍受露宿街头的生活。

9月15日，274人乘巴士从德班前往林德拉。另有约150人选择留在德班，并开始寻找其他住处。

对于那些留下来的人来说，离开人行道并没有解决最初导致他们来到这里的问题。

来自刚果民主共和国的小企业主、难民社区代表卡富提·穆尤姆巴表示，许多人害怕回到他们建立起事业和生活的社区。

他说，人们都很害怕。“就连警察都纵容游行和暴力事件。他们拿着棍棒过来，说我们在攻击他们，”穆尤姆巴告诉半岛电视台。

他说，许多难民在几个月的动荡中失去了生计，现在迫切需要找到住处。

“这并非我们第一次遭遇仇外情绪，”他说。“2008年和2015年我们也经历过这种情况。”

2008 年，仇外暴力蔓延至乡镇和非正式定居点，造成数十人死亡，数千人流离失所。

随后几年，针对外国公民的暴力事件再次爆发。

对于穆尤姆巴来说，这些记忆让他难以忽视9月30日发生的种种言论。

“我们不信任警察。他们对我们不公平。有些人甚至说我们必须离开，”他说。

警方表示，由于9月30日的最后期限，他们没有计划改变正常的警务方式，并要求所有抗议者遵守法律。

March and March 表示，他们只希望无证移民离开该国并返回家园。

但穆尤姆巴表示，返回刚果民主共和国对许多刚果难民来说并不是一个可行的选择。

“那里仍在发生战争，”他说。

一个正在收紧边境的国家

针对持续不断的抗议活动，南非政府表示已加强移民执法力度。

据政府移民部际委员会称，6月14日至8月20日期间，当局处理了86596名外国公民的驱逐和遣返事宜。

马拉维人是人数最多的群体，其次是津巴布韦人和莫桑比克人。

政府数据显示，被遣返者中有 90% 是非法进入南非的，而 95% 的人被归类为从官方入境口岸以外的地方越境。

政府表示，这些行动是加强边境管理和执行移民法的更广泛努力的一部分。

与此同时，官员们多次警告私人团体不要自行执法。

三月份提出的9月30日最后期限不具备法律效力。政府表示，普通公民无权将任何人驱逐出南非。

在南非德班举行的反移民游行中，抗议者举着标语牌，呼吁加强边境管制并遣返无证移民。[图片：Thuli Dlamini/路透社]

但即便没有法律强制力，截止日期也能造成恐慌，就像之前的6月30日截止日期那样。对于那些在德班内政部办公室外露宿数月的难民来说，9月30日无疑是雪上加霜，让他们原本就充满的不确定性更加难以承受。

有些已被转移到数百公里之外。

还有一些人试图在他们曾经逃离的社区里寻找新的家园。但半岛电视台采访的移民普遍担忧，当人们首先将愤怒指向他们的外国人身份时，即使有证件也可能无法提供足够的保护。

巴赫布瓦在南非生活了超过四分之一世纪。目前，他说他正在躲藏，不知道9月30日会发生什么。

他说：“他们把我们这些外国人当作替罪羊。这件事不会在9月30日结束，它与选举有关。”