The “Catch-22” of being a refugee in Malawi

I was so choked when I learned my dad was arrested for leaving the camp. This is not the first time this has happened but I always feel terrible when I hear that it happened again. My dad who was a successful business man in Burindi tries to make a little bit of money to help out his family. He does this by selling food. However, as a refugee in Malawi, this is not allowed. And so the police arrest him.

This is the reality of being a refugee who is trying to look after his family, in Malawi. It used to be that a refugee was just returned to the poverty of the refugee camp. Now, however, people are starting to be kept in jell for the crime of being a refugee who is caught outside of the Dzaleka camp.

Malawi accepted and is willingly hosting refugees. However, for years now, it struggles to accommodate their needs while keeping the Malawian citizens happy. As a poor nation, Malawi is politically and economically limited in the freedoms it “feels” it can allow refugees. UN High Commission for Refugees(UNHCR) guidelines request the host country allow refugees to pursue employment, but the guidelines are not enforceable because refugee camps are not sites of citizenship. Malawi has placed reservations on its obligations as host, such that refugees are not allowed freedom of movement and access to the Malawian economy through employment. Malawi’s restrictions have prevented many refugees from finding reliable employment, perpetuating rough and unbearable situations including the shortage of food which leads to malnutrition, lack of access to health care, extreme poverty and poor housing.

Malawi denies refugees the right of movement. Refugees are trapped in the camp and not allowed to explore the rest of the country. Many refugees have tried to go to cities to search for jobs but they are arrested, harassed, humiliated and returned to the camp. Many refugees have business backgrounds and are eager to start their own business in order to supplement the rations that the UN agency provides but their creativity is undermined and ignored.

During 2008, police arrested hundreds of refugees for leaving Dzaleka camp, and during the year authorities closed more than 50 shops operated by refugees and forced their owners back to the camp. Since 2008 there have been numerous, unreported cases of violence. These cases are not disclosed by the government in order to prevent greater scrutiny by the UN. However, families still trapped in the camp are all too painfully aware of what is happening to their loved ones, who are the victims. The UNHCR has as its mandate assistance for the resettlement and assimilation of refugees who cannot return to their home. In effect, the UN wants to find a new home for each and every displaced person. However, short sighted local governments may see only an economic advantage in keeping refugees trapped in their camp.

There are a variety of economic benefits to an extremely poor country such as Malawi, to insist on the continuing presence of a refugee camp. First, Malawian nationals are employed in the UN food distribution, secondly, Malawians directly benefit from UN Health and education services proceeded in the camp. Third, foreign volunteers and other UN or NGO aid workers are a source of tourist revenue to Malawi, especially, as most travel to Lake Malawi and other attractive sites in the country. Without a refugee camp, many of these charity-oriented tourists might not be as likely to travel to Malawi from Europe and North America. As well, if all of the refugees were to be assimilated into the economy of Malawi, there would be no more UN and NGO money for the camp hospital and school services and food distribution because they would be no more such need. While having an energetic and productive group of entrepreneurs would profoundly benefit the Malawian economy in the mid and long term, the hardship of losing refugee aid is deemed to be too great.

In the light of the forgoing concerns, the Malawian government is using strategic ways to ensure that it keeps benefiting from refugees while refugees have no share from that benefit. One of the ways the government is doing that is by harassing and humiliating refugees through a long term imprisonment in hopes to destroy their desire to go to cities. Once refugees are overwhelmed by the humiliations and decide to give up going to cities, the Malawian government will get its way. This strategy really works for the government as it has taken it upon itself to attack any refugee who dares to open a shop in town. Sadly, the strategy precludes the Malawian government from acting in accordance with recognized international standards and prevents refugees from receiving appropriate legal status including, wherever possible, the same economic and social rights as nationals of the country in which they have been given asylum.

Over 9000 people are trapped in sad poverty in Dzaleka Camp due to a failure to recognise the great benefit they could provide to Malawian society with their intelligence, creativity, and desire for a better future for themselves and their children. The challenge for the international humanitarian community such as the UN is to facilitate their evolution from refugee to active citizen through the transformation of the Malawian mindset to one which can embrace a better world for all people within Malawi.