Xeno refugees 'cheated UN'

Some xenophobia refugees in Cape Town cheated the United Nations (UN) of relief funds last year, according to an affidavit filed in the Cape High Court. The affidavit by city Housing Director Hans Smit, forms the basis of an application for the eviction of just under 400 people from the Bluewaters safety site on the Cape Flats. They are the last refugees remaining on city-owned property.

Smit said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees had given financial assistance to people displaced by last year's wave of xenophobic violence, for relocation or reintegration in the communities they left. This had been R1 500 for single people, and R3 000 for families of more than one person, paid in installments. The payments were made to displaced foreign nationals (DFNs) only when they left the city-run safety camps.

"Shortly after the implementation of the scheme it was discovered that it was being abused by some DFNs who, by altering their names, fraudulently procured the payment of allowances to them repeatedly," Smit said. "In addition, it was discovered that some DFNs were returning to live in the camps even after they had collected their relocation allowances."

When this emerged, administration of the payments was taken away from the staff of the Cape Town Refugee Centre, a Non-Governmental Organisation, and transferred to the city's camp managers. The eviction application lists 236 refugees at Bluewaters by name, and asks for an order against them as well as anyone else living there. City spokesperson Pieter Cronje said the names listed on the order were those of the adults. Children brought the number at the site to 397.

Smit said in his affidavit that the city gave them notice in October last year - it wanted them off the property, meant to be a holiday camp for members of the public. Over 20 000 displaced people had already been reintegrated into the communities they had been living in, but the Bluewaters group had "steadfastly refused to move."

He said that by refusing to reintegrate or relocate, they were trying to gain an unfair advantage over people on the city's housing waiting list, which had a backlog of 400 000. Giving them houses would set a bad precedent, he said. From the beginning of June to September last year, the city had spent more than R120 million on catering for the displaced foreigners, Smit said.

When the case was called in the High Court this morning, advocate for the city Ncumisa Mayosi told Acting Judge Patrick Maqubela that the matter had originally been unopposed. However, the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) had now informed the city it was representing some of the refugees. She asked for, and was granted, a postponement to June 9 to allow the LRC to compile a list of its clients. She said the city intended to press ahead with an unopposed application in respect of those refugees not on the LRC list. Maqubela ordered the refugees pay the "wasted costs" of today’s proceedings.