Legal aid for refugees, others

Yassinah X, a 24-year-old  Rwandan at Dzaleka Refugees Camp, engaged Malawi Legal Aid Bureau lawyer Chimbowa to claim mandatory support for her four-year-old child.

The father, an Ethiopian campmate, had been dodging responsibility.

Yassinah sought legal aid to resolve the matter through out-of-court mediation.

After securing a consent order compelling the father to provide financial support for the child, she said: “I am happy Malawi Legal Aid Bureau has assisted me.

“This shall help in provision of basic necessities and school fees.”

The bureau assists people who cannot afford legal representation and access to justice. This includes legal advice, assistance and representation as well as legal education, information and methods for alternative dispute resolution.

In Malawi, the bureau was established by Section 3 of the Legal Aid Act of 2011 to provide legal aid to the indigent and vulnerable people in need.

Section 5 requires the bureau to do anything necessary or desirable to provide legal aid in the country.

Like Yassinah, any person in need of legal assistance, including foreign nationals who cannot afford or access private lawyers, can apply for legal aid in both civil and criminal cases.

Refugees flee their countries because they are at risk of serious human rights violations and persecution.

The risks to their safety and life were so great that they felt they had no choice, but to leave and seek safety outside their country because their own government cannot or will not protect them from those dangers.

Refugees have a right to international protection as war, ethnic clashes, tribal conflicts, religious violence, hunger, climate change and economic opportunities are forcing people to flee their countries.

Equally vulnerable are stateless persons and asylum-seekers.

Stateless persons are not considered nationals by any State. They do not have any nationality. Some are born stateless, but others become stateless.

An asylum seeker is a person who has left their country to seek protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another nation, but has not yet been legally recognised as a refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim.

The Department of Refugees in the Ministry of Homeland Security handles the affairs of refugees, stateless persons and asylum seekers.

What are some of the legal assistance the bureau offers refugees?

For over three decades, Malawi has been receiving refugees from neighbouring countries and the Horn of Africa.

The country is party to the 1951 United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol  as well as the Organisation of African Unity’s Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa of 1969.

The government also ratified the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, but has not assented to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

Despite these legal and human rights instruments, refugees’ rights are limited due to the 1951 Convention, which calls for legal assistance and aid.

The Constitution, the supreme law of the land, can be used to promote and protect human rights for all, including refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons.

For example, legal aid can help enforce for the benefit of refugees access to education and health, freedom of movement, economic activities, naturalisation and child rights, including child support and maintenance.

Refugees and stateless persons have financial challenges and only a few can afford legal services  from private practice lawyers, whose fees are too exorbitant for Malawians whose income fall below K50 000.

Further, the status quo cannot permit them the luxury of engaging private practice lawyers.

Legal aid is open to all who cannot access legal services. The bureau has a constitutional mandate to represent anyone in any legal matter.

The Constitution says: “Everyone has a right to legal representation in any legal matter, regardless of geographical status, position and location, the law doesn’t discriminate.”