DURBAN - KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli says the growing number of Malawian nationals stranded at the Sherwood Hall grounds in Durban was a growing humanitarian crisis.
Thousands of Malawians have been camped at the site waiting to be transported back home.
On Sunday and Monday about 755 departed on buses provided by the Malawian government. Six-thousand more people have converged at the site.
Ntuli visited the site on Tuesday. He said a steering committee would be established to help repatriate the undocumented migrants. The premier said the process would be handled jointly by various stakeholders.
The department of Home Affairs has been at the site from 10 June processing nationals.
“The situation here is unfortunate. It is a crisis which we must manage,” Ntuli said.
The premier said the provincial government would also be taking the route of deportation as done by the national government.
“When we have 10,000 plus people here, we don’t know how many will be here tomorrow and next week. We might have more coming into this place. It is important that we expedite whatever initiative that is being done. I’m happy that already, there are trucks from Home Affairs waiting to transport some of the people here to the Lindela repatriation centre.”
Ntuli said 10 more buses from Malawi were expected to arrive soon to transport more citizens.
“What we need to do as government is to ensure that this does not end up being a disaster. We want to ensure that the people who are here are not adversely affected, even the people of KZN should not be affected by the presence of the large group that is here,” he said.
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He said the province was using several approaches to solve the situation, including approaching the private sector to donate more busses.
“No one must discourage any efforts given to this process. We also need to play a role where it is possible to ensure we avert any crisis that might happen here.”
Malawian nationals who have been camped at the Sherwood Hall grounds from last week claim they left their homes across the province amid fears sparked by anti-migrant protests.