Harmony Park, September 22
Sorry for my slack updates. It’s hard to write about the endlessly sad saga sometimes, and difficult to identify its gaps, needs, and concerns in quick ways.
It was a blur at Harmony Park today. UNHCR and UNICEF representatives were visiting en masse, engaged in long and drawn out meetings with the leaders over the voluntary registration process, which only started as I was leaving. The two options were outlined, the reintegration ‘package’ discussed, and the terms of participation made clear. I was troubled by the overemphasis of the readily accessible assistance from the Cape Town Refugee Center. Towards, the end of the meeting, a representative of UNICEF said, as it had not been said until this point, that the camp will close in a few months: this broke the otherwise cooperative mood. Harsh voices were raised (an acute comment from a Burundian resident on the importance of not calling reintegration an ‘opportunity’, for example) and tempers frayed. The major concerns surround the uncertainty for those who are still in the camp on the day of its closing and of the time after the two-months of UNHCR-sponsored rent ends (which seems to be allocated in problematically formal ways). I think that most residents will try to participate in one of the two options (reintegration, repatriation). The Congolese and Burundians residents (the ‘no hopers’, according to one mediator I spoke with, cynically but wisely) are a group with particular needs and myriad complex situations that I remain unconvinced have been adequately thought about on part of the state.
Home Affairs and UCT Law Clinic lawyers will come tomorrow, I hear. Mediator teams are large in Harmony and the surrounding areas. The extensive camp management seem to have most things under control, and they remain extremely cooperative and responsive to questions. Security has improved. There were troubling rumors of an event at Blue Waters in which a civil society group was quoted as actively telling people to not participate in the UNHCR processes and not to leave the camp (I’m unsure what to make of any rumors like this). There has been some circulated print material from Prosec Professional Security (B. Sithole, 021 551 4533) that says that foreign workers will no longer be employed by their company.
Some basic data I could get: 476 men, 131 women, 139 children (where have the children come from?!). Total camp population: 746.
83 tents (including 54 family tents). 58 toilets (12 male, 12 female indoor ones). 24 showers (12 for men, 12 for women). 50 dustbins…
Since the arrest of the oldest leader, I’m increasingly being used as a mediator to the mediators and camp management. It feels tiring at times, though it is usually helpful in relaying messages between people during the more heated moments. I continue to go to the camp as often as I can, and stay in regular phone contact with residents, camp management, and the mediator team by phone and email in between my visits.
Written by longterm volunteer