Thousands Seek Way Out As South Africa Braces For Anti-Immigrant Protests

Thousands of foreigners queued for processing at a makeshift camp in the South African city of Durban ​this week while hundreds of Zimbabweans slept on the pavement outside their consulate in Cape Town, Reuters reported yesterday.

All had the same goal: to ‌leave South Africa before nationwide anti-immigrant protests on Tuesday, which many fear will descend into violence.

‘We are scared because you never know what people are planning to do to you. It’s not right to wait and see what will happen,” Ebrahim Moosa, 37, said. He was with his wife in a snaking line of people, some with babies on their ​backs, hoping to catch a bus to Malawi from Durban.

South Africa has been gripped by a wave of xenophobic protests and sometimes deadly ​attacks in recent weeks, forcing many foreigners to flee or be chased from their homes.

Anti-immigrant groups have set June ⁠30 as a deadline for all undocumented migrants to leave. Several cities are bracing for unrest, even as the government has pleaded with citizens ​not to take immigration enforcement into their own hands.

“We are appealing to all those who will be marching to respect the police,” said Phumelele Makoba, acting ​police commissioner for KwaZulu-Natal province, which is expected to be one of the hotspots.