Life at Dzaleka camp
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, said Martin Luther King.
Malawi welcomes thousands fleeing their countries to breathe freely.
They require protection and special support, says the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
Dzaleka Camp in Dowa hosts about 53 000 refugees and asylum seekers, mostly from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia and Somalia
They are part of a global exodus of about 117 million, according to the UN refugee agency.
Malawi is party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol on refugees’ welfare.
However, refugees at Dzaleka, formerly a notorious prison for political dissidents, face numerous challenges due to financial hiccups.
Arsène Boji Lumière, 29, fled armed rebel attacks in the North Kivu region of DRC and took refuge at Dzaleka in 2017.
He recounts: “Life at the camp is never easy. At first, it was difficult to accept that I was stateless. As time went by, I moved on to blend in with my fellow refugees.
“Malawi has been very welcoming. It’s painful to be separated from people you love so dearly, but friendly Malawians have helped me blend in quickly.”
Lumie’re is a journalist.
He volunteers with Yetu Community Radio Station at Dzaleka. His programmes focus on gender-based violence, human rights and sustainable environment management.
However, he says getting employment is challenging, especially where laws require enforced encampment of refugees and asylum seekers.
Lumière feels lucky that he started volunteering for the station after a year in the camp.
“The job has given me hope,” he says. “When I just came here in 2017, I didn’t have any source of income, except a monthly allowance from the authorities, which wasn’t enough.”
Unlike Malawian workers, the community broadcaster only gets a stipend for volunteering.
However, he feels better off than other refugees.
“Living at the camp is really challenging. I have lost count on the days I went to bed on an empty stomach and I lack clothes to wear. Of course, we receive the monthly food rations from the World Food Programme, but it’s not enough,” Lumière says.
In May, he says, the food allowance totalled a meagre K9 200 per person.
The displaced community also struggles to get safe water, sanitation and hygiene.
“We only have few boreholes where every family is expected to fetch 14 litres daily,” he laments.
However, he hails the police and community agents for maintaining peace, safety and security at the camp.
Regina Cinama, 24, who quit her medicine studies in the DRC, lives at Dzaleka alongside her five-year-old brother.
Now a housewife, she says: “When I arrived in 2018, I had to wake up at 3am to fetch water as piecework so I could buy food.
“Life is harder for a woman as we lack basic sanitary supplies like pads.”
The population pressure on limited resources worsened early this year when the Government of Malawi ordered all refugees in urban trading centres to relocate to the country’s largest refugee camp.
The camp opened in 1994 to host 12 000 refugees, but now houses up to 53 000, with over 2 000 blending with local communities through intermarriages and other pathways.
Refugee rights activist Innocent Magambi says refugees still live in harsh conditions due to overcrowding and financial constraints.
“A health centre at Dzaleka Camp has long been overwhelmed by inadequate resources and staff against a rapidly growing population with varied unmet needs. The health facility often runs out of essential drugs and basic commodities,” he says.
Dzaleka welcomes about 300 new arrivals every month, according to UNHCR.
The government is constructing a new refugee settlement for refugees in Chitipa District to decongest Dzaleka.
The sweeping exercise to relocate immigrants to Dzaleka has raised calls for a review of existing policies, laws and practices affecting refugees in line with the Constitution and international standards.
Faced with the global backlash, President Lazarus Chakwera said it was wrong for critics to view the relocation exercise as denying refugees the right to work.
He told CNN: “You must understand that refugees have been treated according to the law. We work with neighbouring countries and the UNHCR and they abide by the rules, like they would in any other country…
“We want to ensure that they don’t use Malawi as a transit camp to go to other countries just because they carry the name of a refugee.”
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