Nearly 460 refugees and migrants spent the night outside Durban Central Police Station after being turned away from shelters, a stark end to two days that began with people seeking protection from xenophobia, threats and assaults in KwaZulu-Natal.

On the morning of 18 May 2026, the group went to Refugee Social Services in Durban for urgent help. Community members said they feared for their lives, told police they needed protection, and were informed that officers could not guarantee safety from xenophobic groups. By about 11:00 am, they had arrived at Durban Central Police Station, where community leaders held meetings with police officers through the day.

At around 4 pm, Metro Police official Naicker and Colonel Sithole of Durban Central SAPS told the group that men would be sent to the tented site near the Elangeni Hotel on North Beach and women to the shelter site on Mansel Road. At about 5:45 pm, Metro Police and SAPS officers escorted them to both sites. But when they arrived, men and women were refused accommodation. People already staying there said there was no space. Security personnel said they had not been told new arrivals were coming.

The situation worsened at Mansel Road, where tensions rose and women seeking shelter were chased away. One woman’s blouse was torn in the confrontation, which unfolded in front of police officers who did not intervene. By about 6:30 pm, the men were told to return to Durban Central Police Station. The women came back around 7:00 pm after failing to reach shelter safely. Everyone seeking protection was left to sleep on the pavement and in the parking area outside the station overnight.

What happened next was more violent. On 19 May 2026, police used batons, tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets against the unarmed people gathered outside the station, and there are multiple reports that live ammunition was used. Video evidence shows that several people were seriously injured. Police also tried to arrest Rev. Raphael Bahebwa before the group moved about four kilometres to the Diakonia Centre, where community leaders met church leaders, the local councillor, human rights lawyers and representatives from Refugee Social Services.

The crisis sits inside a wider pattern that has been building in Durban and smaller towns across KwaZulu-Natal, where xenophobic rhetoric and street thuggery have forced refugees from their homes, shut down businesses, led to assaults and threats, and driven people away from work and school. Many are now undocumented because Home Affairs failed to renew their papers on time, and community members say the police systematically refuse to open cases. That failure mattered on 18 May, when officers did not intervene at Mansel Road and later could not keep people safe.

For the refugees and migrants who spent two nights trying to find shelter, the central question is no longer whether they face danger. It is whether the authorities who sent them from one place to another can now provide protection that is real, immediate and enforceable.