New Delhi, June 26 -- More than 3,000 Malawians, hundreds of them children, have spent their nights in an open field in the South African port city of Durban for the past several weeks, sleeping through winter temperatures while waiting for repatriation flights home. They did not choose the field. They were chased there.

that undocumented foreigners leave South Africa by June 30. That date is now four days away.

The June 30 deadline carries no legal weight. No court set it and no parliament endorsed it. What gives it force is the violence that has surrounded every mass march and several nights of neighbourhood attacks since April. Those attacks have killed at least seven people, looted hundreds of foreign-owned businesses across multipl...