KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli says a group of mostly Congolese refugees who have been camping outside the Home Affairs offices on Moore Road in Durban could be relocated to the Lindela Repatriation Centre in Gauteng as early as Monday or Tuesday.
Ntuli visited the site on Friday amid growing concern over the conditions in which the group has been living for the past four months.
Women and children are among the foreign nationals camping outside the refugee reception centre.
The Premier says Home Affairs officials have completed status verification for all but five families, with the process expected to be finalised on Friday.
“By today [Friday] 2:00 PM, they may be done with verification. It means then they will be only now consolidating the information, so that tomorrow or Sunday a meeting, technical meeting will take place to then put together or to finalise the plan of bringing the transport so that they are relocated to a much better place,” Ntuli said.
He says the current conditions outside the Home Affairs offices are not suitable for human habitation or consistent with human dignity.
According to Home Affairs, 309 people are registered as part of the group, although further verification is still required for some of the children.
Ntuli has also criticised representatives from the refugees’ countries of origin and the United Nations Refugee Agency, accusing them of not doing enough to assist the affected families.
He says representatives from several countries failed to attend a meeting held to discuss the group's welfare.
“Why are they not taking responsibility? I'm very not happy that they did not attend,” Ntuli said.
“The majority of the people who are here, they are from DRC, Burundi, and other countries, but those countries were not part of the meeting.”
The planned relocation remains subject to the completion of the verification process and arrangements for transport.