Fearful Immigrants In South Africa Revealed They Had Been Targeted By Long Time Neighbours

Following the attack, fearful immigrants in South Africa revealed they had been targeted by long time neighbours and people who warned they would assault anyone carrying a foreign passport.

The immigrants spoke at a tent camp where they are now living having fled Alexandra when the mobs began attacking shops owned by those from other African countries.

The violence in Alexandra Township followed anti-immigrant riots in and around the coastal city of Durban that killed at least six people, recalling a bout of similar unrest in South Africa in 2008 in which about 60 people died.

The message from the mobs in Alexandra was, 'We don't want to see people with passports. We only want to see people with South African IDs,' said Veronica Lechaea, who comes from the southern African country of Lesotho and has lived in South Africa since 2008.

Lechaea, who works as an office cleaner in Johannesburg, left her home in Alexandra and sought refuge in a camp set up on the grounds of an Anglican church by the charity Gift of the Givers.

She said she makes about $250 a month and sends half of the money home to Lesotho to support her 12-year-old son, who is living there with his grandparents.

The attacks stem from a perception that immigrants are taking jobs at the expense of South Africans in a country with high unemployment. 

Many people from other countries have entered South Africa illegally, though the government has said a large number are working legally and contributing to economic development.

Some African countries are arranging to repatriate their fearful citizens, and there have been protests and calls in Malawi, Zimbabwe and other regional nations for a boycott of South African goods.

South Africa has one of the biggest economies in Africa and it is unclear whether any boycott would have a significant impact.

Immigrants from Asia and the Middle East have also been affected by the violence in South Africa.

Sandra Ngwanya, a chicken seller from Zimbabwe who also left her Alexandra home for the Gift of the Givers camp, said her neighbors told her: ''We are going to go door to door, taking your stuff and beating you. So we want you to go back to your country.''

Ngwanya, who has lived in South Africa since 2006 and married a South African, said she left her two young children with cousins and hoped to go home soon.

'They are saying it's quiet. The police are all over the place. I want to go and check on our stuff,' said Ngwanya, whose husband works in a mine outside Johannesburg and planned to return to check on his family.

However, some people at the camp said the situation remained volatile.