UNHCR and Malawi Red Cross Society ensure safe passage for asylum seekers

The UNHCR has had to intervene to ensure the entry of about 30 asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) into Malawi. UNHCR head of liaison in Malawi, Michael Owor, told IRIN on Thursday that the asylum seekers had been turned away at the entry points of Chitipa and Karonga in northern Malawi. Chitipa is on the border with Zambia while Karonga is close to the Tanzania border. He said reports from last week that Malawi’s border authorities were turning away asylum seekers had prompted him to visit Chitipa on Tuesday. After discussions with authorities there, a vehicle had been organised and the Malawi Red Cross Society was on Thursday trying to transport the 20 asylum seekers from Karonga and the 31 from Chitipa to Lilongwe, about 800 km to the south, to be registered. “Things were running smoothly until the end of last week,” Owor said, “when the trend in the movement (of refugees) increased.” He attributed the increase in the number of people fleeing to Malawi to the “result of insurgency in the DRC and various other problems”. “The withdrawal of foreign forces does not seem to have taken on the momentum that many people are talking about. We hear of a pull out of Ugandans and Rwandans, but that is not (what people are seeing) on the ground. Things are not as good as they appear in the mass media, so things remain volatile,” Owor told IRIN. He said the number of people seeking refuge in Malawi had increased steadily from the end of last year and that between 60 and 100 entered the country each week - mainly through Chitipa and Karonga - compared to about between about 15 and 40 last year. The majority of people arriving now, he said, were “the most vulnerable and in a very desperate situation”. They had no money, documents, food or transport to get to Lilongwe to register themselves as refugees. For the most part, he said, they had lost everything they had while fleeing their homes. Stressing that the controversy had not soured relations with the Malawian government, which is a signatory to the UN’s 1951 convention on refugees, Owor said: “The main problem appears to be the fact that the authorities are getting weary with the continued arrival of these people.” He said the number of refugees seemed to have overwhelmed officials at the border posts who did not have the resources to deal with them. Owor also said that two weeks ago UNHCR, Malawi government and other aid organisation officials had visited Chitipa and Karonga to discuss difficulties with officials there. “We decided there is a need to establish transit camps in the area,” he told IRIN, saying that a lack of funds had so far prevented the UNHCR from having a field presence in the area. Malawi is host to over 5,300 refugees and asylum seekers. According to Owor, about 2,300 of them come from Rwanda, about 1,500 from the DRC, 800 from Burundi and about 140 from Somalia. Owor said the UNHCR had been in constant contact with authorities at the border posts since last week and would continue to do so. Regarding the seizure of between 30 and 40 minibuses belonging to refugees on Wednesday, he said he was to meet police officials late on Thursday to determine the facts. Earlier, media reports quoted Jomo Mkandawire, the Road Traffic Commissioner, saying that the vehicles were not necessarily seized because they belonged to refugees but because they did not comply with traffic regulations, but representatives of the refugees said the move was discriminatory.