Lack of action by Dr Dolittle on Immigration and porous borders results in another humanitarian crisis
8 March 2021
Note to Editors: Please find attached a soundbite in English and Afrikaans by Adrian Roos MP
Home Affairs Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, must put down his popcorn, get off his couch and provide leadership to secure our borders and take charge of issues of refugees and asylum seekers.
The Minister has been standing back and doing as little as possible, while stakeholders such as the City of Cape Town, UNHCR and others have been forced to scramble to fill in the leadership void.
We now face a humanitarian crisis at refugee centres in Cape Town where Home Affairs are conducting drawn-out processes to repatriate or reintegrate refugee groupings. This weekend at the Paint City site in Belville, sanitation and ablution facilities were removed by the UNHCR, who had stepped in on a temporary emergency basis after the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) previous unilateral withdrawal of sanitation. Now the UNHCR contract for sanitation has also come to an end at the DPWI shelter being provided to refugees at Paint City. A DPWI spokesperson has referred the latest withdrawal of sanitation to Home Affairs when questioned.