Anna Majavu

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has called on the government to compensate victims of the recent xenophobic attacks.

Yesterday, TAC's Nomfundo Eland said the government should compensate the victims "for lost and stolen property and emotional trauma suffered during the violent attacks".

However, chief of operations in the Presidency, Trevor Fowler, told Sowetan last week that the government would not compensate victims of xenophobic attacks because this would mean that all crime victims would begin claiming compensation.

Yesterday, the TAC described the situation in Western Cape refugee camps as a "humanitarian disaster".

The TAC says civil society is still paying for most of the humanitarian aid, at a cost of more than R500000 a week.

Addressing a press conference in Cape Town, Eland said there were still 6171 displaced foreign nationals living in refugee camps in Cape Town.

Refugee camp representatives also say that refugee camps "are not fit even for animals".

"On windy days, the tents break and leave us without a place to sleep," said Asad Abdullahi, a Somali who lives at Soetwater refugee camp.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission has written to the government demanding that its monitors be allowed entry to the camps. HRC staff and Legal Resources Centre lawyers have been denied access to the camps over the past week.