Overview
- Authorities are still managing thousands at Sherwood Hall in Durban with a second temporary overflow site opened and women and children prioritised for direct buses home while many men are being transferred to Lindela for formal processing.
- Police used stun grenades, teargas and rubber bullets when some men resisted being moved to Lindela, a clash that reporters and officials described as occurring on Wednesday.
- The Department of Home Affairs identified about 1,876 people at the site as undocumented and set up a virtual priority court to fast-track cases as SAPS fingerprint screening so far has found no links to criminal records among those processed.
- Conditions at Sherwood are dire, with overwhelmed toilets, outbreaks of diarrhoea, rationed water, several births on site and charities reporting they are feeding up to 10,000 people.
- The surge follows weeks of anti-immigrant campaigns and a contested June 30 ultimatum that have pushed regional repatriation efforts, prompted Malawi to run buses and seek donations, and raised diplomatic and humanitarian concerns including multi‑year re‑entry bans for deportees.