DURBAN, KwaZulu-Natal — Local authorities and provincial stakeholders are intensifying a coordinated humanitarian response as more than 7,000 Malawians seeking refuge in Durban face worsening conditions in the Sherwood area. With the number of foreign nationals growing daily, engagements between government officials and community leaders are ongoing to manage the crisis and facilitate a smooth voluntary repatriation process.
The urgent situation in Sherwood has escalated over the past week, prompting high-level interventions. Senior provincial officials recently convened at the Sydenham police station to strategize a unified approach to the growing influx. A local community leader noted that discussions with Mayor Cyril Xaba have centered on the critical need to expedite administrative procedures. The proposed strategy heavily emphasizes the Department of Home Affairs accelerating paperwork processing, coupled with the Malawian government streamlining their end of the repatriation requirements.
Addressing the logistical challenges on the ground, a spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs in KwaZulu-Natal provided an update on the department’s operational capacity. The spokesperson revealed that when the verification process commenced on the 10th of the month, only five immigration officers were initially deployed. Recognizing the massive scale of the task, the department has since bolstered its ranks to handle the crisis.
“We are now operating with close to 40 personnel, including 35 confirmed officers and backup from head office to assist with assessments and verifications in the province,” the Home Affairs spokesperson stated, adding that they are continuously assessing the situation to determine if further manpower is required to process the nationals under the voluntary repatriation framework.
Despite these administrative adjustments, Malawian nationals stationed at the camp are pleading for immediate intervention as living conditions continue to deteriorate. In response to the deepening crisis, the KwaZulu-Natal Premier is scheduled to visit the Sherwood site to assess the situation firsthand. Meanwhile, authorities are preparing to dispatch additional buses in the coming days to transport more individuals back to their home country.
