GROUNDUP: Two hundred documented refugees forced to join thousands camped at community hall

Police told refugees to leave Durban Home Affairs office to avoid a March and March event.

A group of 200 documented refugees camping outside the Durban Home Affairs offices were forced to leave in the early hours of Monday morning, 15 June 2026, as the police warned them they could not guarantee their safety from March and March supporters.

The refugees, mostly from the DRC, Rwanda, Uganda and Sudan, have been living there since 21 May, pleading for protection as anti-immigrant sentiment grows. Home Affairs officials verified their documents that they are in South Africa legally.

At 10pm on Monday night, police officers told the refugees to leave by 4am, as there was a planned March and March event on Tuesday.

The state provided no transport, and local activists helped escort the group to a field at Sherwood Community Hall, where they joined a group of thousands of immigrants who had also fled for their safety.

News24 reports that, as of Tuesday, more than 8,000 people were camped inside and outside Sherwood Hall. Many of them were Malawian and Mozambican citizens who were asking to be repatriated.

Yeshelen Govender, a civil society activist based in Durban who assisted the group, said the local community had stepped in to prevent a humanitarian crisis at the hall.

“The tents that are here are from the local community. The toilets are from the local community. The only thing the state has done is post the police force around here,” she said.

“I’m from Goma [in the DRC]. I’m from the east, where there’s a war. What am I meant to do in that war?” asked Leanne Sefu, one of the refugees who had camped at the Home Affairs offices. She said the South African government had not been able to keep them safe.

“We were still hoping to see that maybe we could get help from the government, but there’s no hope now,” she said.

While camped outside of the Home Affairs offices, the refugee group were intimidated and threatened multiple times by March and March supporters, said Sefu.

She said municipal and Home Affairs officials told them to go back to their homes or to Lindela, a repatriation facility in Krugersdorp, even though they were in SA legally. Those who tried to go back to their homes were threatened, and some were even assaulted, she said.

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli visited the hall on Tuesday morning.

Luthando Ngubane, the spokesperson for the Ethekwini Municipality, said Malawians at Sherwood were being deported.

“However, the process has been slower than anticipated due to the lengthy processes of dealing with each migrant on an indivi