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."
InFocus
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The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is asking the Malawian government to reconsider its decision to force about 8,000 refugees and asylum-seekers living in villages, towns, and cities back into the overcrowded Dzaleka camp.
The commission says relocating self-sufficient and productive people into the camp would not only lead to loss of livelihoods but also compel them to rely on dwindling humanitarian aid. Homeland Security Minister Jean Sendeza said the forced relocations
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Refugees and their legal teams have expressed alarm at Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera's plan to force about 2,000 people residing outside the overcrowded camp at Dzaleka, to return. A court injunction has prevented their immediate relocation, but authorities appealed the order. Chakwera has said the country's encampment policy prohibits refugees from living outside of camps, and requires refugees to work within the premises. Human rights lawyer Chrispine Sibade has said that "forcing
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The widespread exploitation of men, women, and children at a refugee camp in Malawi has been uncovered by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Malawian Police Service. Now measures are underway to dismantle the human trafficking networks operating within the Dzaleka Refugee Camp, identify and rescue their victims, and bring those responsible to justice.
UNODC has coached and mentored 28
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Dzaleka Refugee Camp in central Malawi.
