The Department of Immigration this week stopped 58 ‘refugees’ from boarding a plane at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) enroute to the United States of America and Europe.
This is the latest of Malawi government’s clampdowns in its bid to sanitise the refugee system in the country which some quarters fear has degenerated into an underworld of crime.
The 58 are suspected to have been travelling under the refugee resettlement programme which officials and activists say has been turned into a criminal enterprise involving refugee impostors from West Africa and officials from the government and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
We understand that some of the ‘refugees’ left the country on August 29, 2023, and others left on September 1, 2023 but were not in the Malawi refugees database.
Sources in the refugee sector have told Malawi News that it is not the first time that people from other countries, especially West Africa, come to Malawi and collect resettlement papers and connect to their destinations especially the US.
They said the refugee data base in Malawi has always remained the same despite government officials claiming that some refugees have left for resettlement in other countries.
Government has confirmed that some on the list of the 58 were not in the database of the Refugees Commission in Malawi.
The list is being scrutinised.
Spokesperson for the Department of Immigration, Wellington Chiponde, confirmed the bust at KIA but he referred Malawi News to Ministry of Homeland Security for a detailed response.
Minister of Homeland Security, Ken Zikhale Ng’oma, said they are investigating the matter.
He added that government will scrutinise each and every refugee who is going abroad in a move to clean up the resettlement programme.
“At Homeland Security, we try our level best to scrutinise every name, as the resettlement programme is for genuine refugees and not fraudsters.
“We have always had suspicions about the mess in the refugee resettlement programme.
“Our commitment is to refugee protection, not enriching rackets. There are so many questions that need answers on the refugee management. We shall get to the bottom of this fraud,” Zikhale N’goma said.
He said the government is committed, as per international law, to protect refugees, and the ones abusing this system or benefiting are neither genuine refugees nor asylum seekers.
Refugees are allowed to travel for resettlement if they meet the requirements as set out by the resettlement country and the Department of Immigration.
Innocent Magambi, Chief Executive Officer for Inua Advocacy, a Lilongwe-based refugees’ rights organisation, said he is aware that some refugees have been stopped from travelling to the United States of America where they were expected to resettle.
“While I can confirm that the resettlement scheme is used as a corruption scheme by the police, immigration department and UNHCR officials, some of the refugees that have been stopped are genuine and are here at Dzaleka,” Magambi said.
He said it is sad that some of the refugees who have spent 14 to 30 years with refugee status, they have been denied the right to go to a country where they will have peace.
“Do you know that UNHCR resettles less than one percent of the world’s refugee population annually?
“If the refugees in Malawi have that chance, they should go and resettle, but the problem is that there are so many syndicates that are taking advantage of discriminatory refugee laws in Malawi,” Magambi said.
In our earlier investigation, we revealed how some UNHCR officers at the camp and officials from the Ministry of Homeland Security and Department of Refugees were caught in fraudulent schemes that swindled desperate refugee families on the pretext that they would facilitate their relocation to Europe.
The cats got out of the bag after the collapse of a deal involving a family of one refugee, a Burundian national named Protais Kamana, after he had allegedly paid K60 million to the officials to facilitate his family’s resettlement plan.
His coming to Malawi was facilitated by a refugee who has been living in the camp for many years, but his trip ended up in one of the hotels in Lilongwe.
Kamana arrived in the country in February this year and engaged the officials to facilitate the deal.
However, six months later, he found himself at Dzaleka camp after the said officials duped him out of all his money.
“I paid the money because the officials promised me that they would process my resettlement in Europe,” Kamana said in an interview.
Kamana officially lodged a complaint with the Commissioner for Refugees in the Department of Refugees under the Ministry of Homeland Security and also with the police.
The issue is in court in Dowa.
Hearing of the matter took place on August 23, but the accused did not avail themselves to the court.
Officials said the racket on resettlement of refugees abroad has been going on for too long, with both foreign and local officials involved promising these refugees better lives in Europe or Australia for a fee.
When contacted on the phone, UNHCR country representative Modeste Koume told Malawi News to go to his office, saying some issues could not be discussed on the phone.
In the resettlement arrangement, refugees are selected and transferred from a country where they have sought protection to a third country that has permitted them to stay based on long-term or permanent residence status.
The aim is to ensure that refugees are protected against forced return.
It also provide them access to rights similar to those enjoyed by citizens, and allows them to eventually become citizens of the resettlement country.
The UN Refugee Agency works closely with its partners to identify the most vulnerable refugees with urgent protection risks. But the final decision on whether or not a refugee will be resettled in a country is at the discretion of the country of resettlement.
The scrutiny of the resettlement programme is yet another of government’s actions as it tries to clean up the refugee system.
In the past few months, government has been moving back to Dzaleka Refugee Camp refugees who moved out of the camp and settled in the country’s towns and centres.
In the past week, it has been examining containers it confiscated from refugee business people in case of any contraband items and to establish whether they have documentation to be doing business.
