The victims of the outbreak of xenophobic violence in South Africa: ‘Even in front of the police they can beat you up and no one protects you’

Priscilla Mussa is three months old and has spent two of them sleeping on a filthy mattress on a sidewalk in the South African city of Durban. A fuchsia down onesie, a wool cap and a thick blanket that her mother, Rebecca Varis, pulls almost completely over her protect her from the southern winter. Around them there is the smell of a steaming, spiced stew that several dozen men and women are eating for breakfast from plastic cups. Across the sidewalk, washed clothes hang from an iron fence. “This is where we live now,” Varis says, pointing at the mattress. Durban has become one of the epicenters of a wave of xenophobic violence that for weeks has been forcing thousands of migrants and refugees to leave their homes. Foreigners make up around 4% of South Africa’s population, but they have become the scapegoats for a much deeper crisis.

Seguir leyendo