Youth and Society (YAS) has called on the Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Internally Displaced Persons, and Migrants in Africa to conduct a fact-finding mission to Malawi and investigate the refugee human rights situation.

YAS executive director Charles Kajoloweka made the call at the 77th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights recently held in Arusha, Tanzania.

YAS executive director Charles Kajoloweka

The organisation has also urged the government to revoke the refugee relocation exercise and adhere to its human rights obligations under the Constitution and international human rights law.

Said Kajoloweka in a statement: “The government’s implementation of the refugee encampment policy and the ongoing relocation exercise have been marred by systematic violations, including the rape of women, loss of property, unlawful detention of children and women, forced and unlawful deportations, extortions, xenophobic attacks by authorities, corruption, and robberies targeting refugees and asylum seekers.”

He added that refugees endured overcrowded conditions, physical abuse, lack of access to legal representation and family, detention without trial, and limited access to basic amenities.

“We are also concerned about reports of sexual exploitation and corruption implicating some United Nations and Malawi Government officials in the refugee resettlement programme,” Kajoloweka said.

He, thus, called on the government to promptly and independently investigate the violations against refugees and asylum seekers, and hold the alleged perpetrators accountable and provide adequate remedies to the victims.

But in an interview yesterday, Ministry of Homeland Security spokesperson Patrick Botha said while the government is committed to ensuring the refugees welfare, all refugees and asylum-seekers should respect the laws of the land by, among others, staying in the designated Dzaleka Refugees Camp.

The camp in Dowa District was set up in 1994 with a capacity of 12 000, but currently holds over 52 000 registered refugees.

Government embarked on a sweeping exercise to relocate refugees from residential areas back to the refugee camp, but various human rights civil society organisations have called on government to stop the refugee relocation exercise which has seen 765 families, totalling 2 296 refugees and asylum seekers forcibly moved to the camp as of October 9 2023.

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