The youth and society-YAS has warned government to trade carefully in its refugee repatriation exercise to avoid flouting some international laws that advocate for the protection of rights of asylum seekers.
The warning coming from YAS executive director Charles Kajoloweka comes as government has committed to track and repatriate some Rwandan generals believed to have fled their country after committing various crimes.
Speaking to MIJONLINE, Kajoloweka said government needs to uphold its human rights obligation according to the constitution and international human rights laws by among others ensuring that refugees and asylum seekers are not only protected but also create a conducive environment for the realisation of fundamental rights of the said group of people.
Kajoloweka said government needs to keep in mind the principle of non-refoulement which states that a refugee should not be expelled or returned to the boarders of a country where his life or freedom will be threatened.
“Government needs to be very careful in repatriating these people some of whom are termed as suspects of crimes in their home countries because our fear is that it might be aiding the political persecution of political opponent of other countries. We therefore ask government to make a thorough assessment before sending them back” Kajoloweka said.
Meanwhile, Kajoloweka has proposed the review of the 1989 Refugees Act and align it with the Bill of Rights as enshrined in the constitution of the Republic of Malawi and ensure that government does not take steps that would be interpreted as being inciting violence towards foreign nationals.
The far, Kajoloweka has further asked government to halt the refugee re-allocation exercise until it addresses some bottlenecks like shortage of space at Dzaleka Refugee Camp to avoid a creating a humanitarian crisis.
According to the United Nation High Commission for Refugees, Malawi had over fifty thousand refugees as of May 2023, with about thirty-two thousand of them being from the Democratic Republic of Congo, about eleven thousand from Burundi and six thousand others from Rwanda, most of whom are accommodated at Dzaleka Refugee Camp which was designed to host about twelve thousand people.
