‘They will attack me if I stay’: immigrants in South Africa flee for safety amid violence and anti-foreigner protests

The anti-migrant demonstration in Durban, South Africa, on 30 June. Photograph: Tommy Trenchard/The Guardian View image in fullscreen The anti-migrant demonstration in Durban, South Africa, on 30 June. Photograph: Tommy Trenchard/The Guardian ‘They will attack me if I stay’: immigrants in South Africa flee for safety amid violence and anti-foreigner protests More than 2,000 anti-foreigner protesters march through Durban city centre as the arbitrary deadline passes for undocumented migrants to leave the country South Africa was holding its breath on Tuesday as mass anti-immigration protests were held across the country. They come after a weeks-long campaign against foreigners that has seen at least four killed and tens of thousands fleeing for safety. In the coastal city of Durban, where violence had been expected, the streets were unusually quiet and shops were shuttered as tension hung thick in the air. More than 2,000 protesters in Zulu attire marched through the city centre, brandishing sticks and clubs and calling out “ Abahambe! ” (“They must go!” in isiZulu, the most widely spoken language in the country), a phrase that has become the movement’s rallying cry. Campaign groups behind the protests have given undocumented immigrants an arbitrary “deadline” of 30 June to leave the country, with many fearing the marches could descend into violence. View image in fullscreen Malawian migrants in Durban wait to board buses at a makeshift displacement camp. Photograph: Tommy Trenchard/The Guardian In the days leading up to the deadline, thousands of people have fled their homes in fear, sleeping rough on pavements, in open fields and in makeshift camps, in the hope of being repatriated to their home countries. Several African governments have organised buses or planes to bring their citizens home, with police saying more than 25,000 have been repatriated so far. In the city of Pietermaritzburg, 50 miles from Durban, where a 29-year-old Malawian national was killed by a mob after a protest on 19 June , hundreds of families camped for days outside an abandoned building. On the eve of the 30 June protests, as authorities raced to send home as many as possible, a queue snaked through the overgrown garden. Weary mothers and children sat around campfires while people lifted their tightly packed belongings into buses headed for South Africa’s northern border. View image in fullscreen Jackson Makungwa, a migrant from Malawi, forced to leave his partner and two-month-old baby. Photograph: Tommy Trenchard/The Guardian Jackson Makungwa stood in the line beside two small bags: everything he could carry from 10 years spent building a life in South Africa. The 29-year-old from Malawi had once seen South Africa as a “country of hope” and had lived there legally, but said he had been unable to renew his work permit for the past two years. “It’s not like I want to be illegally in the country, but the system doesn’t allow me to be here legally,” he sighed. For weeks,