Probe wanted into UNHCR office

Cape Town - The United Nations is to be asked to probe the way its South African office has been dealing with the xenophobia crisis, the Aids Law Project said on Thursday.

Civil society groups would lodge a formal request early next week, project spokesperson Fatima Hassan told a media briefing in Cape Town on Thursday.

"We are asking the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other UN agencies in Geneva to investigate fully, through a commission of inquiry, the role that the UNHCR office in Pretoria has played in actually standing by while the rights of people who have sought their protection have been violated," she said.

AI report

The move comes in the wake of an Amnesty International report earlier this month which called on the UN to prove strong leadership, and proper monitoring of the human rights of the displaced foreigners.

Hassan said that when the xenophobia crisis arose, civil society groups had first asked, then begged and pleaded with the UNHCR local office to play a more meaningful role.

She believed the office should now be closed down.

"We do not believe that there's any purpose in leaving open a UNHCR office in Pretoria for South Africa if they fail to advise our government properly and if they fail to condemn the actions of our government where human rights are violated," she said.

"This is four and a half months of dealing with an office that doesn't do its job."

Situation in camps 'worse'

She also said the situation in Cape Town's three remaining refugee camps was worse now than in the two weeks following the outbreak of violence in May.

There had been no proper consultation over the consolidation of camps three weeks ago.

Women at Blue Waters had not received napkins for their babies, or proper baby food, since then.

Tents were falling apart and leaking in the ongoing rainy weather, and in some tents there were up to 15 families without privacy.

There was not enough food or electricity, the hygiene situation was getting worse, and the safety of women and children had still not been assured.

"We have been lied to, we have been made promises that have not been fulfilled, and we have been given undertakings that have not been carried out," she said.

"My sense... is that the situation is worsening and its a deliberate ploy to make the situation so bad that people will be forced to leave the camps, that they will have no other choice."

- SAPA