Zimbabwean refugees abused in South Africa They escaped with
their lives from a country in collapse. They fled often with
nothing. They came to the region’s richest and most powerful
nation looking for protection. However, they have been welcomed
with abuse, discrimination and a blindness to their plight. The
Catholic Church in Musina provides food parcels to 260-270
people every day including approximately 100 newcomers.
Approximately 3,000 Zimbabwean men, women, children and babies
are trapped in dire conditions behind a wire perimeter camp in
Musina, a border town in South Africa. The refugee camp on
Musina’s Showgrounds is the size of a football field and
contains neither adequate shelter, sanitation or protection for
the vulnerable Zimbabweans. They have fled a country where
famine threatens half the population, a cholera epidemic goes
unchecked, and violence and repression are widespread. The
Government of South Africa regards them as economic migrants
however, meaning they can be denied asylum. “The si