Their reality is grim – the thousands of migrants and refugees existing on the margins in South Africa. They lack access to proper health care and shelter and face physical and verbal abuse, police harassment and xenophobic attacks. For these migrants, proper legal status is often difficult to obtain, if not impossible. Gangs prey on them when they cross the border into South Africa and in the derelict buildings where they find temporary housing. As a result, many face further threats living in dangerous conditions, particularly in Johannesburg. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is providing health care to these vulnerable people in Musina, a town on the border with Zimbabwe, and in Johannesburg.
