'We are human'

2008-06-12 13:33

Cape Town - Scores of displaced xenophobia refugees and supporters on Thursday morning occupied the main concourse of Cape Town's civic centre to demand better accommodation and UN intervention.

The centre housed most of the city's administrative offices, the council chamber and the office of mayor Helen Zille.

A spokesperson for the group, Victoire Ngoy, said: "We are going to stay here until our rights are respected, because we are human and we do have a right."

He said the refugees wanted the city to open up community halls in white areas to accommodate refugees, and also wanted the government to invite the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to solve the crisis.

A spokesperson for the Aids Law Project, Fatima Hassan, who was in the civic centre, said officials had apparently sealed off all entrances to the centre.

Armed police were on the scene, she said.

It was understood that among the refugees were a group that had been sleeping on the pavement outside the city's Caledon Square police station.

Though the city opened up a number of community halls, it had come under fire from the provincial government and the Treatment Action Campaign for its decision to house the bulk of the refugees in special camps.

- SAPA