Scores of armed police in battle gear stormed a church in the Cape Town city centre on Thursday afternoon to remove hundreds of refugees who had been holed up there for months.
Earlier on Thursday, senior police officers, health workers and home affairs officials went into the church to discuss moving the refugees during the Covid-19 lockdown.Refugees moved to the church last October after being evicted from outside the UN High Commission for Refugees city centre offices. They claimed to be in peril in SA, due to xenophobia, and wanted to be flown out.
The group split in December after a leadership tussle, and about half of them left. The spent several months living outside the church before being forcibly removed on March 1. Some of them are now in makeshift shelters near Caledon Square police station.
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