APA-Cape Town (South Africa) South Africa Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula needs to \"pull her head out of the sand\" and acknowledge the causes and the extent of the xenophobic violence in the country, the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) said in Cape Town in a media briefing on Monday.

\"The DA is deeply concerned about the extent of the humanitarian crisis that is developing across Gauteng as a result of violent attacks on foreign nationals,\" chief whip Ian Davidson said in a statement.

The time has come for \"targeted intervention\" by the government to both halt the violence and establish refugee camps for those displaced by it, he said.

\"The first step in this process is for the minister for home affairs, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, to pull her head out of the sand and acknowledge both the causes and the extent of the crisis.

\"Government\’s attempts to formulate an adequate response and workable solutions to this stalemate hinge upon a full acknowledgement by the minister that this is indeed an emergency, rather than the workings of a so-called \’third force\’ or a rag-tag of unspecified \’criminal elements\’,\" said Davidson.

He said Mapisa-Nqakula had a \"long history of denial\" as to the extent of illegal immigration into South Africa, mainly from Zimbabwe.

\"By presiding over one of the largest human migrations of the last quarter century, without any comprehensive plans on how to cope with the influx of millions of people into South Africa, government is responsible for creating the necessary conditions for the development of the current crisis.\"

The DA said the establishment of refugee camps would allow the government access to the expertise and resources of the United Nations agencies.

\"These agencies could also prove invaluable in helping us to cope with the strain placed on our already over-stretched resources,\" he said.