CAPE TOWN, July 4 (Xinhua) -- South African authorities started transferring hundreds of Zimbabwean nationals and some Malawians from a temporary processing center in Cape Town on Saturday.
Buses leaving the Epping processing center will travel to Musina in Limpopo Province, where thousands more foreign nationals are awaiting processing and repatriation to their home countries. Authorities have also urged remaining applicants to travel directly to Musina for processing.
Humanitarian organizations have been providing food, shelter, and sanitation at the site. Aid workers said some people had developed diarrhoea and flu-like symptoms.
About 400 more people who arrived overnight were waiting nearby after being turned away as the processing center prepared to close.
Zimbabwean national Yekuai Mokoena, who had been staying at the site with her two children after also spending several nights outside the consulate, described conditions simply. "The situation is bad," was all she could say.
More people continued arriving at the Epping site from across the Western Cape Province seeking government assistance to return home, while buses were still being loaded with passengers and luggage on Saturday afternoon.
Last week, around 3,000 people were relocated to the Department of Home Affairs site in Epping, Cape Town, after spending about two weeks outside the Zimbabwean consulate in the city, fearing violence linked to anti-immigrant protests and an unofficial June 30 deadline set by anti-immigrant groups for undocumented foreign nationals to leave South Africa.
