Malawi Police Service and its partners yesterday rounded up about 200 foreign nationals as the crackdown on purported illegal immigrants and refugees extended to Northern, Eastern and Southern regions.

The operation follows the passing of an April 15 deadline for asylum seekers and refugees residing outside Dzaleka Refugees Camp in Dowa District to return to the designated place.

In an interview yesterday, National Police spokesperson Peter Kalaya said as at 3pm yesterday, about 200 refugees and asylum seekers were rounded up in the Southern, Eastern and Northern regions.

He said 90 were picked in Blantyre and 61 from Mangochi.

Kalaya said the operation will remain in force until all the asylum seekers and refugees are relocated to Dzaleka Refugees Camp.

Tapsoba: Rescind the ongoing exercise

He said: “We will not stop the operation until we relocate them to Dzaleka because these people were given enough time. So in terms of properties they have left behind, our officers are conducting patrols to make sure that they are safe until the appropriate time when they will reclaim.”

A visit to Police Training School in Kanjedza, Blantyre where asylum seekers and refugees were kept before being moved to Dzaleka, found that the majority were women. Some men were reported to have escaped arrest.

However, the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) yesterday expressed extreme concern over the ongoing arrests and detentions of refugees and their subsequent forced relocation to Dzaleka.

In a statement released yesterday by its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the UN agency said due to funding shortfalls, it does not have the resources to meet the needs of the returnees, upgrade transit shelters and provide household items.

Reads the statement in part: “Some 35 individuals who returned to Dzaleka Refugee Camp following the authorities’ intervention recounted to UNHCR teams how quickly they had to flee their homes, leaving behind everything to escape arrest.

“Another family said that, amid the chaos, they ran in different directions and got separated from their daughter, 8, for two days before being reunited.”

By Tuesday, UNHCR said it had only received about $2.5 million (K2.6 billion) which is nine percent of the total funding of $27.2 million for this year, crippling its ability to meet the protection, assistance and livelihood needs of refugees.

On his part, Valentin Tapsoba, UNHCR’s Regional Bureau for Southern Africa director, pleaded with Lilongwe to rescind the ongoing exercise.

As of May 19 2023, about 300 asylum seekers and refugees were arrested in Lilongwe.

According to UNHCR, about 8 000 refugees living in rural and urban locations are expected to return to the camp, which presently accommodates 56 425 refugees. It was originally established to accommodate up to 12 000 refugees.

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