Refugees, asylum injured by South Africa police

SOUTH AFRICA: Hundreds of of refugees and asylum seekers evicted during a clash with police in central Cape Town on Wednesday have taken refuge at the Central Methodist Church in the city.

The church was packed in the early evening as men, women and children flooded in after being ousted from the Waldorf Arcade in St George’s Mall, outside the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where they had staged a sit-in since October 9.

The group, from all across Africa, have been demanding that the South African government and the UNHCR help them leave the country in the face of recent xenophobic attacks.

Congolese national Patient Kazadi said xenophobia had left him with no choice but to flee the country. “We’ve been here [outside the UNHCR] because of xenophobia in South Africa. We came to the UN to ask for our own rights. The government must send us to any other countries. They must take us out of South Africa,” he said.