“Hostility towards migrants and refugees makes South Africa one of the most migrant-unfriendly countries in the world. In May 2008, the country was rocked by violent attacks on the lives and property of Africans from other parts of the continent. Over 60 people died in the violence and over 100,000 migrants were forced out of their homes and communities. President Thabo Mbeki
and other leading public figures blamed the violence on fringe criminal elements and denied that xenophobia was a factor.Such a view required a wilful blindness to over a decade of unchecked xenophobia in South
Africa that dated back at least to the mid-1990s.”
