South Africa has become a hostile place for undocumented migrants, as a deadline set by protesters for them to leave the country approaches.
“I am very scared and traumatised,” Esnat Joseph, a 36-year-old Malawian woman, told the BBC as she tried to comfort her crying one-year-old triplets.
She fled her home in an informal settlement in the port city of Durban, in KwaZulu-Natal province, seeking refuge in an open field where up to 7,000 foreigners – mainly Malawians – began gathering with their belongings two weeks ago.
“The people came to my house and told me: ‘You must leave. We don’t want you people to stay here any longer, so you have to go to your country.’ There were 10, and they were carrying weapons,” she said, describing how the group of South African men were holding machetes and whips.
“They cut my husband on his head and neck. They were holding his neck like they wanted to kill him. Because of God, he still survived, but he’s in the hospital.”
Many others in the field, where aid groups have been giving out blankets and food, report such door-to-door intimidation.
It follows a series of mainly peaceful protests this year led by the anti-migrant group March and March, opposition party ActionSA and others, which have set 30 June as the deadline for undocumented migrants to leave.
Sticks in hand, the marchers have been chanting “Mabahambe” – a Zulu phrase meaning “They must go”.
