Malawi sensitizes refugees on ills of travelling without documents

Officials of Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa say they have embarked on sentization campaigns to refugees on demerits of sneaking out of the camp and travelling out with proper travel documents.

Refugees at the overcrowded Dzaleka camp
Refugees at the overcrowded Dzaleka camp

This comes barely a week after refugees from Democratic Republic of Congo were caught in Mwanza and are spending days at Mwanza Police Station when they wanted to go to Zimbabwe using unchartered routes because they did not have travel documents.

Owen Mzondi Nyasulu, Dzaleka Camp Site Manager said refugees face a lot of problems when they decide to travel without proper travel documents.

“They are free to go anywhere they want to but they need to inform us first so that we can make proper travel arrangements and other necessary administrative arrangements. They do not need to sneak out,” said Nyasulu.

He said the four men and two women still remains at Mwanza Police where they are awaiting Immigration authorities to taken them back to Dzaleka. Dzaleka has 26000 refugees mainly from Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Somali.

Nyasulu says the camp receives up to 400 asylum seekers every day on average, half of whom, he said, use unchartered routes to get to Malawi.

Over 11000 Mozambican refugees, who have run away from skirmishes between Frelimo and Renamo are in Mwanza and close to 1000 in Nsanje.

Malawi had its own people as refugees in Zambia and Tanzania during the one party state when Kamuzu Banda ruled the country with an iron fist, detaining or killing anyone with dissenting views.

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