In the media
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13 August 2015
The Citizen
The recent attacks on foreign nationals and the subsequent manner in which raids are conducted during government’s “Operation Fiela” have contradicted the stance that South Africa is against xenophobia.
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13 May 2015
Talk Radio 702
The irregularities of government's inter-departmental Operation Fiela are currently under scrutiny by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR). Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has defended the operation, saying it is about the state re-organising life in areas ridden with crime. In recent weeks, there have been aggressive early morning raids in parts of Joburg's CBD, including the Central Methodist Church - a home for many undocumented immigrants.
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13 May 2015
The Sowetan
More than 200 foreign nationals arrested last week at the Johannesburg Methodist Church during an Operation Fiela – Reclaim raid will not be sent back to their home countries on Wednesday — instead they will be speaking to their lawyers.
Related articles
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12 May 2015
Voice of America
Human rights activists say South Africa's security forces are promoting xenophobic attacks and legitimizing hatred with their recent roundup and arrest of foreign nationals in Johannesburg and Durban. Many of those detained, they say, have been denied access to lawyers and basic amenities.
The xenophobic attacks that rocked South Africa last month have subsided, but activists say that for an estimated 300 to 400 African immigrants detained in a police sweep, the nightmare is far from over.
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13 May 2015
Eyewitness News
Days after hundreds of people were arrested in central Johannesburg on Friday morning, many still could not access a lawyer. While the state has been ordered to respect the rights of those detained, hundreds of people in other Operation Fiela-Reclaim raids have been arrested across the country. The situation is ripe for human rights abuses against foreigners.
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13 May 2015
Business Day
GAUTENG Premier David Makhura has committed to facilitate a meeting between the People’s Coalition Against Xenophobia and the government’s interministerial committee on xenophobic violence next week.
The coalition includes Lawyers for Human Rights.
This was announced on Tuesday by lawyer Stephen Faulkner, who said the coalition wanted to use the meeting to convince the government to reconsider its controversial Operation Fiela.
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12 May 2015
BizNews
Demonstrators carry placards during a march against xenophobia in downtown JohannesburgJOHANNESBURG, May 12 (Reuters) – South Africa temporarily halted the deportation of 200 foreigners on Tuesday after a legal challenge by a human rights group, which said authorities were unfairly targeting them following anti-migrant riots in which seven people were killed.
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12 May 2015
News 24
Naming a police and army operation which arrests foreigners ''Operation Fiela'', which translates to ''clean sweep'' implies that those arrested are ''rubbish'' and is counter to government's commitment to crack down on xenophobia, Stephen Faulkner from the People's Coalition Against Xenophobia said on Tuesday.
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12 March 2015
The Daily Vox
An unconfirmed number of foreign nationals are still being held at the Johannesburg Central Police Station following police raids on the Central Methodist Church and other locations across the city centre last Friday.
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12 May 2015
The Citizen
South African government’s treatment of foreign nationals through Operation Fiela, while publicly denouncing xenophobia, was a “festering contradiction” said aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors Without Borders) on Monday.
“MSF is concerned that the raids by the police, military and the Department of Home Affairs in [the] wake of the xenophobic violence erodes trust and exposes a contradiction,” said the organisation on Tuesday.
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