Lekota urges government to set up refugee camps

COPE president Mosiuoa Lekota has called on the South African Government to introduce refugee camps for foreigners. According to a TimesLIVE report, he criticised government's handling of immigrants‚ saying that during the struggle against apartheid‚ ANC exiles were confined to refugee camps and not allowed to ‘push out’ residents. ‘We were in exile ourselves. Our own South Africans were abroad. We were not allowed to occupy the cities of those countries and then push the citizens out‚’ he said. Lekota said the government was allowing foreigners to ‘flood SA’. He suggested that putting foreigners into camps was a similar approach to what was done by other countries to handle refugees. ‘SA must look after its own‚ first and foremost‚’ he added.