Being a Refugee Is Like 'Living in a Waiting Room to Nowhere'

Refugees are often depicted as economic burdens on the communities where they have found safety, and on the international aid system. This overlooks the fact that 55% of refugees live in countries where their right to work and fully participate in society is restricted, writes South Sudanese refugee Matai Muon for The New Humanitarian.

Earlier in its Flipping The Narrative series, the publication said the Malawian government had told refugees whose countries have now attained peace to voluntarily return home. This comes as the government has failed to meet the deadline for relocation of the refugees back to Dzaleka camp in Dowa.

Ndizeye Innocent, a Burundian refugee living in Malawi and pursuing an online degree in healthcare management from Southern New Hampshire University, says, "The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, says refugees like me who are forced to leave their homes have three options to resume their lives: voluntary return to the place they've left, integration in their host country, or resettlement to a third country. For the vast majority of refugees, these so-called 'durable solutions' do not work."