South Africa’s novel solution to xenophobic violence: Kick out the foreigners

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — After anti-foreigner attacks last month left at least eight people dead, South Africa’s army was deployed to “hot spots” of xenophobic violence, a high-profile move meant to signal that the government was taking the problem seriously.

The attacks appeared to stop. But now the military, alongside police and immigration officials, are targeting foreigners with raids and mass arrests, explaining that they are trying to root out undocumented immigrants and crack down on crime.

In other words, instead of addressing the complex reasons why poor, black South Africans are attacking and killing foreigners — most of them poor migrants from African and South Asian countries — the government seems to be focused on simply getting rid of the targets.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, describes the South African government’s approach as a “festering contradiction,” in which xenophobia is officially denounced but foreigners are treated as criminals.

Under “Operation Fiyela,” joint raids have been conducted in a number of “hot spots” in Durban and Johannesburg, where much of the xenophobic violence took place.

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In one such raid, in the early hours of Friday, police officers, soldiers and immigration officials burst into the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg, where many poor immigrants have long sought refuge. They arrested as many as 400 men, women and children — the exact number is still unclear — and loaded them onto trucks bound for the Johannesburg Central Police Station.

Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), a South African civil society group, on Tuesday said that those arrested have been repeatedly denied access to lawyers. The group has launched an urgent court application to allow for legal representation, as well as the halting of all deportations until detainees have consulted with an attorney. LHR is also requesting a full list of all those detained.

The South African police service has described Operation Fiyela, which means "to sweep clean," as aiming “to clean up our streets of criminal elements and make our neighborhoods safer.”

But another South African NGO, Right2Know, has described the raids as “state coordinated xenophobia.”

“This type of action sends a contradictory message to foreign nationals who remain vulnerable and deeply traumatized and South Africans among whom they will reintegrate,” MSF said in a statement.