INUA Advocacy, a refugees’ rights defender, has expressed optimism that stakeholders, including the National Assembly, will endorse key priority areas in the Refugees Act 1989, currently under review.
The Public Relations Officer, Brenda Twea says the organization, together with other stakeholders, submitted the proposal for the revision of the Act, and currently being drafted by the Malawi Law Commission, pending validation by stakeholders.
Twea says the current Act defies regional and international standards of promoting the rights of refugees, citing that the Act prohibits refugees from integrating in the communities, operating businesses, accessing tertiary education, and job opportunities in public institutions, among others.
She says Malawi’s encampment policy, among others, exacerbates the suffering of refugees who are confined at Dzaleka Refugee Camp, a facility facing reduced humanitarian aid by denying them a chance to venture into livelihood-generating activities in localities to sustain themselves.
The organization believes that, once the proposed review of the Act comes to fruition, the refugees' rights will be respected while relieving the government’s fatigue emanating from increasing pressure on resource mobilization for the support of the encamped individuals.
In 2023, the government embarked on the mandatory relocation exercise of refugees to Dzaleka refugee Camp, increasing demand for humanitarian aid amid reduced food support by the World Food Programme (WFP).
