South African authorities say they have begun deporting 20 refugees and asylum seekers who were part of a months-long sit-in protest against xenophobia.
They are mostly from African countries and were demanding to be resettled outside South Africa.
Canada was some of the migrants’ preferred choice, said South Africa’s Home Affairs department in a statement.
Their sit-in began outside the offices of the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) in Cape Town in October 2019.
Hundreds of people took part in the protest campaign which lasted five months, and saw the migrants occupy a church where they were given refuge.
At the time the migrants said they did not feel safe because of xenophobic attacks in South Africa’s townships, and that they were treated poorly and discriminated against.
