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Hundreds of people gather to protest irregular migrants and call on the government to deport undocumented immigrants in Johannesburg, South Africa on Tuesday.
At least, four migrants lost their lives during the clashes, which were marred by violence, whilst the remaining refugees are attempting to leave the country.
The undocumented migrants become targets while grappling with an unemployment rate above 30 percent, security issues and a breakdown in services in many areas. Demonstrators accuse the migrants of taking jobs and services, which analysts say is scapegoating foreign nationals for government failures.
Police forces were called to the area after protesters began brandishing sticks and flags and throwing stones; as they moved to disperse foreign nationals from the area, scuffles broke out with the protesters.
Several protesters were arrested, whilst it was reported that security forces had been deployed to Johannesburg and Durban to spend the night there.
At least two Mozambicans, an Ethiopian and a Malawian have been killed in the past weeks of protests, according to police.
A foreign national was found dead Tuesday after he allegedly jumped from the eighth floor of a building in Durban, apparently in fear that he was being chased, police said.
"We want mass deportation," the leader of the anti-illegal immigrant March and March group, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, told a crowd in Durban.
"For the next six months we want the government to get rid of the people who have not left," she said, vowing that her group would maintain weekly demonstrations until local elections in November.
On the other hand, the migrants wishing to leave the country are still waiting for assistance to go home.
Some said their landlords had evicted them or their employers had fired them, fearing fines from labor inspectors or attacks by vigilante groups.
"The people in South Africa, they don't want us here. I'm scared," said a 23-year-old Zimbabwean woman.
Only a few dozen Malawians remained at a site in Durban from where several thousand had been bused out in recent days, either to their country or to a processing site near the border with Zimbabwe.
In Cape Town more than 1,500 people were awaiting repatriation.
Speaking to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Ahamadi Assani, one of the 15,000 Malawians who returned to their home country due to xenophobia, said, “Even if the situation returns to normal, there is no way I can go back there (to South Africa), because we used to have to run away from the police, and some migrants ended up being hit by cars. I would rather die here in poverty than go back to South Africa.”
In the lead up to the June 30 demonstrations, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced stepped-up government plans to combat illegal immigration, including better border controls and inspections.
Previous anti-foreigner riots in South Africa have proved deadly. In 2008, violence left 62 people dead.
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