Malawi: Refugees, including many children, were forcibly relocated and confined to overcrowded camps

JOHANNESBURG – The government of Malawi has arrested and forcibly displaced refugees and asylum-seekers across the country without regard for their basic human rights. Report it today Human Rights Watch. The Malawian authorities should promptly reverse this action and respect everyone’s rights to freedom of movement, education and a basic standard of living. On May 26, Malawi’s Ministry of Internal Security said it had detained 902 refugees and asylum-seekers since May 17. The police, aided by the military, arrested men, women and children living in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, and other districts, closed their businesses, temporarily detained them in prisons and left them empty-handed in the camp refugees from Dzaleka, about 40 kilometers from Lilongwe. Some of those arrested reported beatings and destruction or theft of their property.

The abuses of the authorities. “The forced transfers of refugees and asylum-seekers to Dzaleka camp in Malawi are a misguided and disproportionate response to alleged security and economic concerns, fueled by government scapegoating,” said Idriss Ali Nassah, Senior Africa Researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Not only do the authorities commit abuses while arresting and detaining the children, but also summarily removing them from their homes amounts to illegal forced evictions.”

The roundups of refugees and asylum seekers. They follow a March 27 government directive to enforce its so-called encampment policy. The government has ordered all refugees and asylum-seekers living in urban and rural areas to voluntarily return to Dzaleka refugee camp by April 15 or face forced relocation. Reports that children were among those involved in the roundups and forcibly taken to Maula Central Jail, a maximum security prison in Lilongwe, are of grave concern, he said Human Rights Watch. Children should not be detained for immigration purposes and should never be held in adult prisons, according to international human rights standards.

Many of the children had never been to the refugee camp. Overcrowded classrooms and poor conditions in the camp can cause them long-term damage, she said Human Rights Watch. Malawi’s Human Rights Commission told the Human Rights Organization it had interviewed about 20 refugees and asylum-seekers in Maula prison and Dzaleka refugee camp who said they were attacked during raids and that their money was taken from them. A 27-year-old asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who arrived in Malawi in 2019 said about 20 armed police officers broke down the door of his home at 3am on 18 May. “They held me down and used a baton to beat me on the back,” he said. “And I have injuries as a result.” He was taken to Maula prison and then to Dzaleka camp, where conditions were terrible, with hundreds of people stranded without adequate shelter, food or clothing.

For thousands and thousands only humanitarian aid. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported that Malawi hosted more than 50,600 refugees and asylum-seekers in May, including more than 32,000 from Congo, nearly 11,000 from Burundi and more than 6,000 from Rwanda. Most are in the refugee camp, intended to house up to 12,000 people. UNHCR said the overcrowded camp was unable to meet the food, health, water, shelter and sanitation needs of its existing population. An estimated 8,000 refugees have lived in rural and urban areas of Malawi for a considerable time. In general, Malawi does not allow refugees to seek work or educational opportunities outside the camp, and most refugees are dependent on humanitarian aid. However, some, including those with professional degrees, have received leave to pursue employment and other opportunities outside the field. A Burundian refugee community leader told media that a deal with the government has allowed them to start and run small businesses in rural and urban communities “so they don’t rely on subsidies” in Dzaleka refugee camp.

The imposition of being locked up in refugee camps. In April 2021, the Ministry of National Security ordered refugees and asylum-seekers living outside Dzaleka to return to the camp, claiming they posed national security risks. The Supreme Court of Malawi issued an injunction against the order, but the Blantyre High Court overturned the injunction in August 2022. The Ministry of Homeland Security set a deadline of 30 November 2022 for refugees and applicants asylum living in rural areas to return to Dzaleka camp and February 2023 for those in urban areas. Its March directive then set a new deadline in April. In a May 21 statement, Malawi’s Parliament said refugees living and doing business outside designated refugee camps without permission were incompatible with national law and “a recipe for chaos,” which “has made our refugee laws almost useless”.

A pact that would prohibit transfers. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, both ratified by Malawi, prohibit forced evictions, defined as the permanent or temporary removal of individuals, families or communities against their will from their homes or lands, without access to appropriate forms of legal or other protection. Before carrying out legal evictions, governments should explore all possible alternatives in consultation with those affected, “avoiding, or at least minimizing, the need to use force”.

Disregarded the 1951 convention. Malawi is a party to both the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and the 1969 African Refugee Convention (OAU). Article 26 of the 1951 Convention recognizes the right to freedom of movement and choice of residence for refugees legally within a country, while Article 31 prohibits restrictions on the freedom of movement of asylum seekers unless such restrictions are not deemed “necessary”. However, Malawi expressed reservations when it ratified the 1951 Convention, saying it regarded some provisions “as recommendations only and not legally binding”, including the rights of refugees to freedom of movement, employment, property and education publish. The Malawi Refugee Act of 1989 provides for procedures for determining refugee status, but does not address refugee rights. Malawi should lift its reservations to the 1951 Refugee Convention, which are incompatible with international human rights and refugee law standards, and amend its national refugee law accordingly to end its encampment policy, it said. said Human Rights Watch.

Commitments made in 2019. Malawi has already pledged to change its refugee policies. During the 2019 Global Refugee Forum he pledged to include refugees on the national development agenda and to “legal and political” reform to address some of his reservations to the 1951 Refugee Convention, including on freedom of movement and access to public schools and employment. “Forcible displacements can be expected to harm the rights of refugees and asylum seekers to health, education and an adequate standard of living,” Nassah said. “The government of Malawi should immediately stop the forced transfers, which are contrary to its international human rights commitments.”