Over 30 immigrants who survived the Marshalltown Usindiso Building fire in August last year, have reportedly been deported back to their home countries.

This comes after over 70 people died in the fire which gutted the building. The fire was allegedly caused by a 29-year-old man who confessed to killing a person and then set his body on fire in a bid to destroy the evidence.

The man was arrested after he confessed to the crime during the commission inquiry into the fire.

At the time of the fire, most of the fire victims refused assistance by the government, fearing they would later be arrested and deported.

The hijacked building, which was rented by the Department of Social Development from the City of Johannesburg, had been occupied mostly by locals, Zimbabwean and Malawian nationals.

Once hijacked, rooms at the former shelter for abused women and children, were sold to the poor for about R10,000, while others paid rent to the building hijackers.

At the time, temporary shelters were set up at shelters in Hillbrow, Jeppestown and Bezuidenhoot Valley - but most of the survivors, suspected to be in the country illegally, fled. Only 200 families moved to the government sponsored shelters.

Some of the foreign survivors who did not flee went to the shelters and they were subsequently moved to the Lindelani Repatriation Centre in Krugersdorp.

According to human rights activist Andy Chinnah, in an interview with Newzroom Afrika, said 32 of the migrants who were detained at the centre had initially been set to be deported in December.

However, this did not happen as some of them were due to testify at the inquiry probing the Marshalltown fire.

“Conditions at the Lindela Repatriation Centre were harsh and critical for them, they wanted to be deported from the centre,” said Chinnah.

In his report he further stated that some of the undocumented immigrants could not wait to leave the place, they were unhappy with the living conditions at the centre as they were forced to survive on two meals a day.

“They were getting a cup of coffee at 9 am in the morning, and at 2 pm they had a cup of soup with a little bit of pap as their lunch, the conditions at Lindela Repatriation Centre were becoming too unfavourable,” says Chinnah.

IOL