About 120 people attended a workshop for World Refugee Day at the Nelson Mandela University’s Missionvale campus near Port Elizabeth on Wednesday. The event aimed at educating peace builders and other residents in the area about some of the challenges faced by immigrants. Liesl Fourie, a human rights lawyer at the University’s Refugee Rights Centre said it was important to eliminate myths in the community about immigrants one of which was that they were taking away jobs and women from South Africans. A documentary was also shown highlighting some of the reasons refugees were forced to leave their homes. “We invited a number of peace builders and community members to discuss discrimination against immigrants. The main aim was to squash the various myths associated with immigrants. We are very much delighted that topics were discussed where locals openly expressed their perceptions of foreigners living in the metro,” she said. Ntsikelelo Majeke, project coordinator at the Eastern Cape … [Read more...]