With anti-migrant sentiment escalating in South Africa, Malawian John Allen threw some clothes in a bag, said goodbye to his South African partner and their one-year-old son, and left to catch a bus out of the country.
He has now been waiting in a makeshift camp in the city of Durban for four days with thousands of other people hoping to depart before June 30, an unofficial deadline set by anti-immigrant groups for all undocumented foreigners to leave.
The South African government does not condone the deadline and has condemned violence.
“The reason I would like to stay is I feel bad for my child. He’s too young. When I’m gone who’s going to support him?” Allen, 30, said.
‘Almost everyone has left’
The child’s mother, who is South African, only earns about 500 rand ($30) a week as a cleaner, but Allen had been earning four times that doing contract work for a manufacturing company, although he was undocumented.
As anti-immigrant protests surged in recent weeks some of the foreigners in his neighbourhood were roughed up, he said, and now almost everyone has left.
At least hundreds of people still remained at the giant empty lot in Durban on Monday, where Malawians flocked for safety ahead of protests due on Tuesday to mark the deadline.
Although they say they target only illegal immigrants, the vigilantes often don’t discriminate, and many migrants whose status is entirely legal have been attacked.
Leaving two sons behind
Women and babies huddled together, sitting on cardboard or blankets, while aid groups handed out food and clothing. Some people have been here for a week waiting their turn, with buses departing one after another.
The Department of Home Affairs has set up a tent where it is processing people for deportation, although authorities are currently focused on moving them out of Durban to a border post in Musina ahead of the planned protests.
No one here wanted to risk staying in South Africa, beyond the deadline. Amadou Awali looked dejected as he held up his phone to show a photo of a toddler. He is leaving two young sons behind, and their mother doesn’t have the means to support them, he said.
“I’m worried for the children,” said Awali, who has been in South Africa doing plumbing and construction work since 2019. He plans to wait a few months, and then come back.
