Tit-for-tat over care of victims of xenophobia; SA civil groups accuse UN of doing a poor job

by EMILY PURSER

Civil-society organisations assisting African expatriates displaced by May's xenophobic violence have accused the UN High Commissioner for Refugees of not fulfilling its role and thus contributing to migrants' problems.

A joint statement details the ways in which the UNHCR has not fulfilled its role. These include:

• Observing "the horrific conditions in the camps without appropriate intervention";
• "Delay(ing) processes of repatriation, reintegrating and resettlement, causing fear, uncertainty and further trauma to displaced people"; and
• "fail(ing) to adequately advise the government on issues relating to site planning".

Last week, the UNHCR, which has offices in Pretoria, accused civil-society groups of playing a "negative role" during the ongoing crisis.

It was responding to a joint civil-society report which lambasted the UNHCR for its "failure to act according to its mandate during the crisis".

Civil-society groups - including the Aids Law Project and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) - described the UNHCR's statement as "emotional in nature".

Yusuf Hassan, senior regional global protocol officer of the UNHCR, said civil society was undertaking "sterile and unproductive polemics".

It was "wrong to politicise the situation", and he questioned civil society's agenda.

Hassan rejected the claim that the UNHCR had not fulfilled its commitment, saying it was a "task that we have carried out at every level to protect and assist refugees".

Scott Dunlop, of the TAC's xenophobia task team, said conditions in the camps were "initially horrible and just getting worse".

Civil society has now called on the UNHCR to produce a report "documenting their involvement during the crisis, and their claimed adherence to international principles and human rights law".

Dunlop said there were legitimate human rights risks developing in the camps, and civil society "would like an acknowledgment" from the high commissioner, with the hope that relations would subsequently improve.

He said that "ultimately the UNHCR has failed" and it was necessary to "take it further to an international level" so that the South African division did not go undisciplined.

Cape Town mayor Helen Zille's spokesperson, Robert MacDonald, said the UNHCR was in a difficult position because the organisation "only comes when it is invited".

It had not been "officially invited by the national government", so its "hands are partially tied".

He noted that the Department of Home Affairs "isn't doing very well" at processing papers for the refugees.

According to MacDonald, the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape government were "improving the conditions", with marquees gradually being replaced with family-sized tents.

The UNHCR had supplied about 450 tents.

The Department of Home Affairs was not available for comment yesterday.