Refugee body censure irks Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has thrown jabs at the Malawi Government for allegedly jeopardising refugees’ rights at Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa by frustrating rights advocates.

In a statement posted on the HRW website on December 22 2023, the organisation faulted Malawi for expelling what it calls an important refugee rights group, Inua Advocacy, which according to HRW, had been providing scrutiny of the human rights situation at the camp.

Reads the statement in part: “The media reported that the Malawian Ministry of Homeland Security wrote to Inua Advocacy in November 2023 to terminate its partnership with the group, ordering it to vacate Dzaleka Refugee Camp.

“The partnership had permitted Inua Advocacy to have offices within the camp.”

The communication quoted Inua Advocacy chief executive officer Innocent Magambi as having told HRW that the Ministry of Homeland Security did not give a reason for ending the partnership.

“He believes the authorities acted because of the organisation’s advocacy around human rights violations that refugees and asylum seekers have suffered during and after the forced relocations to Dzaleka camp in 2023,” says the statement.

Ministry of Homeland Security spokesperson Patrick Botha yesterday refused to comment and referred the matter to the Department of Refugees.

But speaking in an interview, Department of Refugees senior administrative and operations manager Hilda Katema Kausiwa declined to give further details, saying the Ministry of Information would soon come up with a statement on the matter.

She said: “There’s a statement coming up soon. But yes, the government terminated the contract. All refugees and asylum seekers should live in the country as per legally permitted.”

The HRW statement is coming from a background of this year’s refugee repatriation exercise which the Ministry of Homeland Security has been implementing.

In an interview yesterday, the Ministry of Information and Digitisation Moses Kunkuyu said Inua Advocacy was not being targeted.

He said: “As a country we reaffirm our commitment to respecting, protecting, and fulfilling human rights for all migrants.

“We are as well cognisant of the fact that we are a sovereign State that has laws that guide the general management of migration.”

Kunkuyu said relocation of refugees followed all rules and was legal.

Following expiry of an April 15 deadline for voluntary relocation of refugees, the Malawi Government in May this year went on to forcibly relocate to Dzaleka camp about 8 000 refugees and asylum seekers following protracted legal battles with local and international rights organisations.