With hopes of finding a safer place to live fading, the foreign nationals living at a church in Greenmarket Square in Cape Town have nowhere to go as the City of Cape Town prepares to enforce its by-laws and remove them.
Hundreds of refugee took refuge in the Central Methodist Mission Church off Green Market Square in October.
On Wednesday, hundreds of refugees demonstrated in the Cape Town CBD to highlight concerns for their safety.
The world marks International Migrants Day on 18 December. Eyewitness News unpacks the reason why a group of foreign nationals urgently wants to leave the country and the challenges they face trying to do so.
Hundreds of refugees protested in Cape Town today, to raise a number of concerns including safety, infringement of their rights and to also show support for those who had been illegally arrested and were in prison.
More than 180 refugees arrested following clashes with police outside the offices of the United Nations Human Rights Agency in the Pretoria have been remanded in custody until their next court appearances.
They were arrested last week for trespassing after they allegedly tried to force their way back into the UNHCR offices where police were carrying out a court order to remove them.
Members of the Western Cape Refugees and Migrants Forum, the SA Human Rights Commission's Chris Nissen and Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba were attacked last week while attempting to address the foreign nationals at the church.
On Friday, police forcibly removed foreigners from the parking lot of the UN Refugee Agency following numerous complains from residents in the surrounding areas.
Foreign nationals who had sought shelter at a Cape Town church were adamant they would continue fighting to leave South Africa due to xenophobia.
The foreign nationals and refugees want to be relocated to other countries, saying they were not safe in South Africa due to xenophobic attacks.
The Human Rights Commission's Chris Nissen has told EWN, there has been a scuffle inside a church where hundreds of refugees have been living in Cape Town.
Foreigners told the organisation to go because Gift of the Givers director Badr Kazi stated their demand to be relocated to another country en masse was 'unrealistic'.
Hundreds are living in a chapel off Greenmarket Square in the CBD after police forcibly removed them from outside the UN Refugee Agency offices almost a week ago.
They had camped outside the offices for weeks, demanding the UN help them leave South Africa as they feared falling victim to xenophobic violence.
Police fired rubber bullets and targeted water cannons at a second group of refugees and foreign nationals in the Green Market Square.
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said it was assessing the situation outside the UN Refugee Centre in Cape Town after police moved in to disperse a group of foreign nationals sitting-in at the centre.
Police fired rubber bullets and sprayed water cannons at protesters when they refused to move. Some were dragged on the floor while others were caught while trying to escape.
