Malawians and Nigerians flee South Africa amid xenophobic threats

Nigeria repatriated 260 nationals on Thursday. Ghana, Mozambique and Malawi have carried out similar operations.

More than 3,000 Malawians, including hundreds of children, are staying in an open field in South Africa’s port city of Durban, after fleeing escalating anti-immigrant threats and attacks.

At the park, which had transformed into a makeshift transit camp on Wednesday, many people said repatriation was their only option amid violent protests aimed at immigrants.

The unrest is pushing thousands to seek an escape. Nigeria repatriated a first group of 260 nationals on Thursday and plans to move out more of its citizens in the coming days. Ghana, Mozambique and Malawi have carried out similar operations in recent weeks.

For weeks, groups armed with sticks, whips and shields have marched through parts of South Africa demanding that foreigners with no papers leave by June 30.

“It’s hard to stay here,” Falesi Chukuwumba, a Malawian national, told Al Jazeera. “You can see we are outside. How can we stay in this cold? Our children can get sick.”

Sayiba John, 33, a Malawian who fled Nazareth township with her husband and three children, told the AFP news agency her daughter, a Grade 2 pupil, was forced to abandon her exams.

“They said we must go. We have no choice in the matter,” John said. “It’s better our government take us away from here than to face the anger of the South Africans.”

Ellen Mwamulima, a 45-year-old widow, mother of three and former domestic worker in Mossel Bay in the Western Cape, fled a mob who nearly caught up with her and had to hide out in the bush for two weeks.

“It’s been very difficult because we lost everything, they burnt our houses and all our belongings,” the Malawian told Al Jazeera.

The anti-migrant marches have been backed by the MK Party, led by former President Jacob Zuma, which commands strong support across KwaZulu-Natal province.

When the party called on supporters to march against undocumented migrants, thousands responded. Demonstrators accuse foreign nationals of taking jobs and economic opportunities from South Africans.

“There are undocumented foreigners working everywhere in our business field,” Mythobisi Sabelo, one of the protesters, told Al Jazeera in Durban. “People here have been trying to find work for a long time and given up. It’s becoming an issue.”

Waves of xenophobic violence

While demonstrators blame foreigners for South Africa’s economic and social issues, others argue that foreigners are being wrongly blamed.

The violence has spread well beyond KwaZulu-Natal. Five Mozambicans have been killed in Mossel Bay and more than 150 Malawians were bussed out of the Western Cape province over the weekend.

Ghana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique have repatriated hundreds of nationals this month.

A first group of 262 Nigerians – most of them women and children – landed at Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos mid-morning on Thursday, Nigeria’s foreign ministry reported.

Around 1,000 Nigerian citizens have said that they want to leave South Africa, the ministry has said. A second group is due to be flown out on June 15.

About 150 additional migrants from Burundi, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe are sheltering at a government office not far from the Durban park.

South Africa has faced recurring waves of xenophobic violence since 2008, when dozens of migrants were killed and thousands displaced. Three million foreigners – about five percent of the population, more than 63 percent of them from within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc – live in the country.

The latest flare-up comes as political parties campaign ahead of local government elections in November.