JOHANNESBURG, August 12, 2008 (AFP) - A South African court on Tuesday rejected an urgent bid to keep open camps housing thousands of displaced immigrants, with the government planning to close them later this week, officials said.

Humanitarian groups that filed the court challenge will now appeal to South Africa's highest court after the failed bid to stop the shutdown of temporary camps for victims of recent anti-immigrant violence.

They had applied to keep open the tented shelters housing foreigners in Gauteng province, which includes the economic capital Johannesburg, until a proper reintegration plan was made clear.

They had argued that the thousands of remaining camp residents could not be reintegrated by Friday, which is when the authorities hope to have finished closing the camps.

But Pretoria High Court Judge Ephraim Makgoba, dismissed the application, SAPA news agency reported.

The government was not violating the rights of the more than 4,000 refugees housed in temporary refugee shelters in Gauteng and was under no obligation to come up with a reintegration plan, he decided.

The ruling means the Gauteng provincial government will continue with plans to close six camps by Friday, said spokesman Thabo Masebe.

'They will close -- nothing will stop us from closing the shelters.'

The camps were set up for thousands of people who fled local communities after xenophobic violence spread to various parts of the country from Johannesburg and killed more than 60 people.

The applicants of Tuesday's court challenge, the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CORMSA) and four residents of a temporary Gauteng shelter, said they planned to appeal to the Consitutional Court.

Stuart Wilson of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at Wits University, which is assisting with the matter, said an urgent application would be filed on Wednesday.

'People are desperate and don't know where to go,' said Duncan Breen of CORMSA.

Last week, the French medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) urged South Africa to provide 'viable options' to those displaced.

'Authorities have not communicated any plans for the reintegration of the displaced, nor has it properly engaged in a dialogue with the camp residents about options for their immediate future,' it said.