South Africa: MSF warns of growing humanitarian needs and access to health disruptions following anti-migrant violence

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has launched an emergency medical humanitarian response following a recent surge in anti-migrant violence and intimidation across South Africa, which has displaced tens of thousands of people and disrupted access to essential healthcare for many affected communities. The violence has reportedly resulted in at least four deaths, numerous injuries and the destruction of homes. MSF teams have been responding to urgent health, protection and dignity needs in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape, and at the South Africa–Zimbabwe border towns of Musina and Beitbridge.

“We are deeply saddened to see people fleeing harassment and violence and we stand in solidarity with affected communities who have had their rights to health and dignity undermined. Our priority is to address disrupted access to healthcare for those most at risk, regardless of who they are or where they come from,” says Claire Waterhouse, MSF Emergency Coordinator. “It’s not over, we are very concerned that this situation is escalating into a humanitarian crisis.”

Anti-migration groups recently issued a public ultimatum for all undocumented migrants to leave the country by the arbitrary deadline of 30 June. While organisers have stated that they are only targeting undocumented migrants, MSF patients indicated that refugees, asylum seekers and documented migrants have also experienced threats, violence and intimidation. ​

Tens of thousands of people—many from Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Ghana—have fled their homes due to fears for their safety and threats to their livelihoods. Displaced people are seeking refuge in parks, churches, consulates, and elsewhere in South Africa, prompting emergency medical humanitarian intervention.

“MSF is particularly concerned about continuity of care for people living with chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, mental health, HIV and TB where lack of treatment or medication interruptions can lead to serious health complications”, says MSF nurse Phumla Tsotetsi. “Additionally, we are prioritising the immediate needs of young children, pregnant women, and survivors of violence. We have also treated women who have recently given birth, some with c-section wounds from a few days before the protests that have yet to heal.”

People have fled from all corners of the country, including rural and farming areas. MSF have three teams of up to 10 staff in South Africa who have set up mobile clinics to provide primary healthcare, chronic care, psychological support, first aid, and to distribute essential items including hygiene kits. We are monitoring sanitation management for potential public health risks in areas where displaced people have gathered. MSF teams are also supporting referral pathways to clinics and hospitals for patients requiring further care.

In Cape Town, our medical team consulted with a mother who had recently been evicted by her landlord because she was undocumented. Her young son, who has a rare form of cancer, needed urgent lifesaving chemotherapy. Although he was eventually admitted to hospital, it remains unclear whether the family will be able to remain in South Africa, highlighting the acute vulnerability of many displaced non-South African migrants and the challenges many face in accessing and continuing essential healthcare.

In Johannesburg, our psychologist supported a woman with a pre-existing, diagnosed mental health condition who had been unable to access her medication after fleeing violence. ​

"She was experiencing severe hallucinations and was at risk of self-harm," says Tsotetsi. "Fortunately, our team’s doctor was able to help her restart her medication the same day."

In Musina, an MSF team are urgently scaling up operations to respond to the medical needs of people gathered close to the border. ​ ​ We will continue to work with relevant stakeholders including affected communities, the South African provincial Departments of Health and civil society organisations to adapt our emergency response as the needs evolve.

MSF has provided free medical care to South Africans as well as migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in South Africa and has repeatedly responded to the health impacts of xenophobic violence and barriers to healthcare access, including during major outbreaks of violence in 2008, 2009, 2015 and 2019. Xenophobic violence has recurred in South Africa for more than two decades, often during periods of social and economic tension. The 2008 attacks were the deadliest, killing at least 62 people and displacing more than 100,000.

In December 2025, together with other civil society organisations, MSF successfully secured a Gauteng High Court judgment ordering the state to take immediate and decisive action to end the obstruction of physical access to certain public healthcare facilities by anti-migrant groups and some healthcare workers. The judgment reaffirmed that access to healthcare must not be denied on the basis of nationality or immigration status. Protecting access to healthcare is not only a legal obligation, but also a public health imperative which helps protect both individual and community health and prevent outbreaks.

"MSF has worked in the Southern Africa region for decades. Our team in Zimbabwe is responding already and in Mozambique we are assessing the medical humanitarian needs of returning migrants,” says Waterhouse. “Contrary to the emerging narrative that the xenophobic action has neither been that violent nor the consequences too catastrophic, affected migrants have shared testimonies with MSF on how badly they have been treated.”

Short testimonies of migrants who have been impacted

Since 2018 *Grace, a 30-year-old Zimbabwean woman, has lived in Hebron, in the North West Province, about 30km from the CBD of South Africa’s capital, Pretoria. She is in her first trimester of pregnancy.

“On Friday, they come to where I’m staying with my three children, around past 10 at night and they kick down our doors. When I try to call the police, they take my phone and break it. Next door, they beat my neighbour with a chain. He is a man from Mozambique. Just because I am a lady, they did not beat me too much. I tell them I am two months pregnant, but they still beat me. My body is in too much pain”.

Grace was later turned away by anti-migrant groups at the entrance to her local clinic when she went to register her pregnancy and get a check-up. She is not the only patient we treated who has experienced xenophobic action at a healthcare facility.

*Dalitso, a 49-year-old Malawian man, living in South Lenasia, Johannesburg, went to a clinic the morning after he was attacked in a door-to-door campaign targeting “foreigners” on the night of 30 June, when all his money, laptop and other valuables were looted. ​

“I take my passport to the clinic and show them... I tell them somebody come to my house and take my stuff and beat me and I am not okay. Blood was coming from in my mouth and out my eyes. [Someone working at the clinic] say ‘you are a foreigner, we can’t help you, you must go to your country. I don’t want foreigners here. If you sit here, I can call the people, and they come here and beat you again’” ​

*Thulani, a 45-year-old man from Zimbabwe living and working in South African for 21 years has not experienced overt xenophobia since the 2008 attacks in South Africa.

Fearing for his safety, he sent his wife to another community while he spent the night of the 30 June protest at a friend’s house down the road in Mamelodi, Pretoria. At 1.20 am Thulani heard a commotion in the vicinity of his house but tried to ignore it. The next day he was traumatised after returning to his house.

“I wake up in the morning, before 5, and I want to go and bath in my house... [But] they just burn my house. ​ They burn everything. ​ I was just crying, you know if you are a big man you can’t cry, but they take everything they want, my tv, fridge, sofa and after that they burn it, my tin house. ​ I am here just like this, the way I am. I have nothing, I am going back [to Zimbabwe] with nothing”.

*Please note, due to the high levels of fear and the sensitive nature of the context we have changed the names of all patients.

Tens of thousands of people fled their homes on June 30 due to anti-migrant protests and violence in South Africa, to seek refuge in parks, churches and consulates. Photographer: Tadeu Andre | Location: South Africa: 30/06/2026At a mobile clinic in Johannesburg, MSF are providing primary healthcare, chronic care, psychological support and first aid to displaced migrants who have fled xenophobic violence, threats and intimidation in South Africa. Photographer: Kate Stegeman | Location: South Africa | Date: 05/07/2026

Tens of thousands of people fled their homes on June 30 due to anti-migrant protests and violence in South Africa, to seek refuge in parks, churches and consulates. Photographer: Tadeu Andre | Location: South Africa | Date: 30/06/2026MSF psychologist Tasneem Bulbulia facilitates a creative and supportive therapy session with a Malawian family displaced by anti-migrant activity in South Africa. Photographer: MSF | Location: South Africa | Date: 05/07/2026

Seipati Moloi

Head of Media and Digital Relations, Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

• Seipati.Moloi@joburg.msf.org
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About Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is a global network of principled medical and other professionals who specialise in medical humanitarian work, driven by our common humanity and guided by medical ethics. We strive to bring emergency medical care to people caught in conflicts, crises, and disasters in more than 70 countries worldwide.

In South Africa, we currently run a non-communicable diseases (NCDs) project in Butterworth, Eastern Cape province, where we support the Department of Health (DoH) in improving care for patients with diabetes and hypertension. The project focuses on improving screening, diagnosis, management, and prevention of NCDs through advocacy, research, health promotion, training, and mentorship of Community Healthcare Workers.

MSF is also recognised as one of the pioneers in providing antiretroviral treatment (ART) in the public sector. It started the first HIV programme in South Africa in 1999. The organisation's earlier interventions in the country have primarily been on developing new testing and treatment strategies for HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis (TB) in Eshowe (Kwa-Zulu Natal) and Khayelitsha (Western Cape). The Eshowe project was handed over to DoH in 2023 after 12 years of operations. The Khayelitsha project was closed in 2020 after 22 years of activities and campaigning for improved HIV and TB treatment.

Other projects we have been involved in include our Migrant Project in the country's capital, Tshwane, which was handed over to authorities and a local Community-Based Organisation after building the capacity to work with undocumented populations. We also previously offered free, high-quality, and confidential medical care to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Rustenburg, North West province.

To learn more about our work in South Africa, please visit this page on our website (www.msf.org.za). To support MSF’s work: