Youngsfield safety site officially closed down

By Cindy Witten
28 October 2008

Leaving over 140 displaced foreign nationals with nowhere else to go, the safety site at Youngsfield military base has officially been closed and deregistered. The last remaining site, being Blue Waters, accommodates more than 900 people. According to the City of Cape Town’s Pieter Cronje, most of the foreign nationals have been reintegrated into society.

“The vast majority of the 20 000 people who where displaced, have either been repatriated back to their own countries or relocated to their own or other communities with the help of United Nations agencies,” said Cronje

He added that the sites were not refugee camps, but rather safety sites, which would inevitably have had to be closed down.
According to the City of Cape Town, once Blue Waters is closed, the provision of food, shelter and other services to displaced people by government will cease.