This archive report was first published on 30 October 2019.
On October 30, 2019, a tense standoff unfolded in Cape Town as police clashed with hundreds of foreign nationals who had been staging a three-week sit-in outside the UN refugee agency's offices.
The protesters, who had been camping in the area, were demanding that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) evacuate them from South Africa, citing concerns over prejudice and violence.
The crisis had been deepening for weeks following a wave of xenophobic attacks in early October that left 12 people dead, most of them South Africans.
According to reports, more than 1,000 people had been camping at the UNHCR offices, seeking help to be taken to a safer country. Some protesters were injured during the melee, and women and children were also arrested.
One protester, who wished to remain anonymous, told a TV reporter that they had been working in South Africa for 20 years but had been unable to secure asylum status.
Another protester, a woman who claimed to be Kenyan, expressed a desire to be taken to 'America, or Britain, anywhere' but not her home country.
The occupation of the UNHCR offices in Cape Town's business district began on October 8 and had spread to neighboring streets. A similar protest action was underway outside the UNHCR offices in Pretoria, but police had not intervened.
