Over 800migrants remain in Acasia camp, north of Pretoria, South Africa, three daysafter the government officially declared it closed. Doctors Without Borders(Medicins Sans Frontiers, MSF) says the migrants, many of whom have refugeestatus, are without food, water or electricity. Most of them come fromEthiopia, Burundi and Somalia.
Acasia camp is located in Gauteng Province. AlexisMoens is the MSF-Belgium project coordinator in Gauteng and Lopopo Province. Hesays the closure of Acasia and several other camps in recent weeks come despitecourt orders requiring that camps be kept open until the residents can beresettled. Some have taken offers by the government of about $55 US to leavethe camps. He says ?humanitarian aid is used more lure people out of the campsthan for helping them.?
Moens says last weekend that resettlement talksfailed between the refugees and local government officials in townships likeAlexandra, where they had been living before the anti-foreign violence last May
Few have gone back.
?What we know,? he says, ?is those that did notresettle are among the most vulnerable and those with no place to go or tooafraid to resettle where they came from.?
Some have taken offers by the government of about $55US dollars to leave the camps. He says ?humanitarian aid is used more lurepeople out of the camps than for helping them.?
Moen says Doctors Without Borders is continuingto provide treatment for some migrants in the camps, like those who requirecontinued treatment for tuberculosis. He said his group is working with otherNGOs to provide food and water for the refugees.