"An African must save an African," says 50-year-old Begson Lubelo
philosophically, as he waits at a makeshift bus stop near
Johannesburg’s Park Station for a bus to take him home to
Malawi.

One of several thousand foreign nationals fleeing violent
attacks by locals in poor townships across the country, Lubelo has
been at the bus stop for two days with his wife and two-year-old
daughter, without food or shelter. The spreading attacks that
started in May left about 60 people dead and tens of thousands
homeless.

Originally from Blantyre, Lubelo arrived in South Africa nine
years ago. Before the attacks began, he worked as a security guard
for a private security firm. His wife and youngest child arrived to
join him only two months ago, leaving six other children behind in
Malawi.

On Friday 17 May, at about 9 pm, he was at home with his family
in Angelo township in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, when whistles
and shouts began some distance away. Locals were gathering to start
the attacks, but he didn’t recognize the imminent danger he
and his family were facing.

At about 11pm, his neighbourhood was stormed by a large group of
South Africans beating up foreigners and tearing down their shacks.
He fled with his family into the bush nearby, while his home was
ransacked and looted. The family slept in the bush for two days
without food or shelter, too scared to return to their
neighbourhood where the locals were waiting, threatening to kill
any foreigner on sight.

Lubelo finally managed to make a distress call to his boss at
work, who picked them up and drove them to the Malawian embassy. At
the embassy they were given emergency travel documents. They then
made their way to Park Station, where they found thousands of other
foreigners waiting to escape.

Lubelo is deeply hurt and angered by this assault, but insists
that as an African and a Christian, he would never hesitate to lend
a hand to any South African, should the need arise when he returns
to Malawi.

But the future is bleak for him and other foreigners, including
Malawians, at the Park Station bus stop. Most of them have lived in
South Africa for years as an integral part of local communities
that have now turned against them. Robbed of all their possessions,
businesses, jobs, documents and dignity, now all they want to do is
return to the safety of their home countries.

"In Malawi, there is nothing for us, but at least we will stay
alive and maybe find something to do later," says one of the
Malawians sitting next to Lubelo. "Many of us have no money because
everything was stolen during the attacks. People are waiting for
friends and family back home to send money so that they can take a
bus," he adds.

In the immediate aftermath of the crisis, IOM mobilized initial
emergency relief packages that included mats and blankets for 2,000
people displaced by the violence, as well as 500 infant kits,
providing parents with some basic necessities to care for their
young children.

But the scale of the problem is huge. Just three kilometres from
the Park Station bus stop, some two thousand foreign nationals had
taken shelter at the Central Methodist Church. "As you can imagine,
food, blankets and basic medication are all badly needed," says
Godfrey Charamba, speaking on behalf of the group.

The foreigners, who are too scared to go to work, have been
surviving with the support of the church and the contributions from
local well-wishers and humanitarian organizations, mainly in the
form of food and blankets.

But Charamba says that there are also other challenges.
"Firstly, the children here need to go to schools or
crèches. We need financial support for that. Secondly, with
two thousand people crammed here at the church offices, we need
counsellors and sex educators, because the potential for sexually
transmitted Illnesses to spread in this situation is disturbing. We
also need gas for the kitchen, so we can cook food. Finally, the
toilets in the building are broken. We have skilled technicians
here, so if we can get the materials, we can repair the drains
ourselves," he adds.

Adding to the pressure are constant worries over their security.
And that of many others in their situation.

Many are bewildered that events like this could happen in a
country that was previously held up as a beacon of peace and
reconciliation. But there is little doubt that the xenophobic
attacks that have rocked South Africa will leave behind scars
unpleasantly reminiscent of the country’s violent past.

In a bid to minimize those scars and to help prevent such
turmoil again, IOM is working with METRO FM, South Africa’s
largest urban commercial radio station and the South African Post
Office. The collaboration is to educate the public on the dangers
of xenophobia and human trafficking and to raise funds to provide
immediate humanitarian assistance to displaced migrants. This
initiative is now being taken further with plans for a two-year,
USD 1.9 million anti-xenophobia programme to be implemented with
government and civil society partners if the funds can be
raised.

South Africa, as much as its large migrant community, needs a
successful change in attitude towards foreigners. Without it, there
is much to lose – on both sides.