Crying foreigners leave camp

Johannesburg - The first few trucks carrying foreigners from the Glenanda refugee camp left for deportation centres on Tuesday afternoon.

The trucks were crowded with people and their possessions.

People lined up peacefully to load their possessions onto about 10 police vehicles. The trucks had small windows covered by security bars.

A large contingent of metro and SA police were controlling the evacuation process.

Police said: "Families must stay together on the trucks."

The people being deported are those who refused to sign for temporary IDs which would have allowed them to stay in the country for six months.

Two large commuter buses have been brought into the camp and people have been loading possessions onto them.

Shortly before that children from the camp ran out of the queue to say goodbye to members of the community that had been helping them.

The children could not stop crying as people that had been helping them from the community told them to stay strong and waved and blew kisses to them through the fence.

People on the buses sang and clapped hands as they were being loaded.

A woman from the camp who did sign for a temporary ID said the people on the bus who were clapping and singing were doing so because they wanted to go home.

- SAPA