Today is the final day for refugees and asylum seekers residing in the country’s urban and rural areas to voluntarily return to Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa or be forced out by government agencies.

This is the statement Ministry of Homeland Security made on Friday ahead of the cut-off date for the concerned immigrants after failing to implement the plan on several occasions.

The government’s stand also comes amid pleas from several stakeholders, including the Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (Cdedi), to halt the exercise until all contentious issues are resolved.

Ministry of Homeland Security spokesperson Patrick Botha said in an interview on Friday that they were optimistic the refugees and asylum seekers would comply with the directive.

He said government was not relenting on the issue having earlier missed several deadlines.

“As per our communiqué of March 27, those who will not abide by the directive, government agencies, including the police and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services will force them to relocate,” said Botha.

He said as of Thursday about 418 refugees and asylum seekers had turned up and registered at Dzaleka Camp so that they could be provided with accommodation.

“By close of deadline on Saturday [today] we will have a clear picture of how many have actually returned,” said Botha.

But Cdedi executive director Sylvester Namiwa on Friday pleaded with the ministry to postpone the plan, arguing that the directive lacked merit as there are some contentious issues to be resolved.

He said while government was acting within the realm of the laws and regulations governing refugees and asylum seekers, it ought to approach the matter with sobriety and ensure that measures it employs do not spring back.

One of the issues that need attention, according to Namiwa, is that Dzaleka Camp designated to host 10 000 refugees, is currently hosting over 50 000.

“Simply put, Dzaleka Refugee Camp is heavily congested and forcing more refugees into it will be a recipe for disaster and, to some extent, a violation of some rights of the refugees and asylum seekers,” he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, government, through Homeland Security Minister Ken Zikhale Ng’oma, has asked the International Organisation for Immigration (IOM) to facilitate voluntary repatriation of the illegal immigrants.

During an engagement with IOM on Friday in Lilongwe, Ng’oma decried the increasing number of economic migrants masquerading as refugees who are mostly not documented.

“Our major concern is the influx of foreigners masquerading as refugees and monopolising such small businesses as tomato and vegetable sales thereby choking small to medium enterprises among the locals that government is actually trying to promote.

“These people infiltrate both rural and urban locations, often without permits. Undocumented immigrants pose a threat to national security,” he lamented.

On his part, regional director for IOM in Southern Africa, Ashraf El Nour advised the Malawi Government to develop a national policy on migration that would feed into the international migration policy.

The exact number of illegal immigrants remains unknown but it is assumed there are about 8 000 who have settled outside Dzaleka.

Government issued an order urging those plying their trade outside Dzaleka Refugee Camp to relocate to the camp between April 1 and 15, five months after it failed to implement the same plan amid calls from the indigenous business community.

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