United Nations Radio

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, has condemned the latest xenophobic attacks in De Doorns, a grape lands farming community about 140 kilometres northeast of Cape Town, South Africa.

UNHCR says local farmers attacked foreigners on Tuesday accusing them of stealing their jobs and accepting cheaper wages in vineyards.

Some 3,000 foreigners, including refugees and asylum seekers from Zimbabwe were forced to abandon their shacks in the area with a population of approximately 13,000 South Africans.

UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic says the evicted people are now staying in a sports field and a community centre in De Doorns, sleeping under three communal tens supplied by the government.

"UNHCR welcomes the rapid humanitarian response of the local authorities and the fact that water, portable toilets and a mobile health clinic were provided within hours. In addition, the South African Red Cross has also been feeding the evicted with two hot meals a day. This is the first large-scale xenophobic attack affecting refugees and asylum-seekers in South Africa since a country-wide violence in May, 2008."

Andrej Mahecic says UNHCR has moved quickly to help the displaced people who are now awaiting the outcome of negotiations with local farmers who attacked them.

He notes that documented refugees and asylum-seekers have the legal right to work in South Africa but tensions often erupt over competition for jobs.

Dianne Penn, UN Radio.

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