South Africa Deploys 500 Soldiers to Quell Anti-Immigration Violence

Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, deployed more than 500 soldiers to the port city of Durban on Tuesday, a week after a foreign national was brutally beaten to death there during an anti-immigrant protest.

Durban has been plagued by months of anti-immigrant violence, with protesters setting cars ablaze, looting foreign-owned shops and terrorizing refugees seeking help at immigration offices.

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In a statement on Monday, Mr. Ramaphosa attributed the violence in Durban to misinformation about the court ruling. The decision, announced in July, had been misrepresented in some quarters to mean that all undocumented immigrants in South Africa would be granted citizenship, jobs and voting rights.

The court’s ruling struck down a provision that prevented immigrants from seeking an asylum claim if they had entered South Africa illegally or failed to report their arrival within the required five-day period. It ruled that all asylum claims must first be assessed on the merits.

The soldiers are scheduled to support the South African police under “Operation Prosper,” a joint security initiative announced by the president earlier this year. The operation is aimed at combating serious crime, restoring law and order and stabilizing volatile areas in South Africa.

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