Prostitution and Violence: The Female Refugees Stranded in Malawi’s Growing Refugee Camp
Weeping flows down Francine’s* face as she removes her glove. Her hand is scarred by a discolored, patchy burn scar. Her fingers are stiff and unnaturally bent.
She began sex work to make ends meet soon after she reached at Malawi’s Dzaleka shelter in 2015, having travelled there from Burundi.
On December 24 in 2022, a customer refused to pay. When she blocked the doorway, he seized a scalding saucepan of beans and flung it at her, burning her hand and chest.
Living conditions in Malawi has become more challenging, with budget reductions by foreign aid groups resulting in most having only one meal a day.
At the same time, the opportunities of moving to countries in the west have been lowered from small to unlikely.
I see other people going, who are in good health … I ask myself, ‘Why is it that I don’t get helped like others?’
After being abandoned by her mother, Francine lived in Burundi with an family member involved in politics, who was gunned down in 2014.
Haunted by her experiences, the 29-year-old mother of children aged two and nine believes her life would be at risk if she returned to Burundi.
She questions why she has never been considered for resettlement.
Malawi, one of the world’s most impoverished countries, has a tradition of hosting refugees.
Dzaleka camp was built on the edges of the capital, Lilongwe, in 1994. The overcrowded camp, which has become an impoverished area, was meant to host 10,000 people.
Now, more than 58,000 refugees live there. About 60% of them are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), from where up to 200 more come monthly.
Malawi’s “resettlement law” prevents refugees from residing lawfully or working outside Dzaleka, making them especially vulnerable to funding cuts.
Financial support have been cut to 50% of what is needed for food.
All of the years that we have been here, UNHCR has never thought about us
The budget issues have led to a surge in sex work, family conflict cases and children stealing.
Anne, a mother of seven, still volunteers and believes that she sees four to six cases of domestic violence a week, twice the number of two years ago.
Malawi is planning building a new camp near the Tanzanian border. However, Anne and other refugees say they want to stay in Dzaleka.
The government is also considering changing the law to allow refugees to work outside camps.
Judith fled Lubumbashi in the southern DRC in 2016, after armed men killed her parents. Just 14, she was left looking after her three younger family members.
She had to turn to sex work and has a four-year-old child with an absent father.
* Names have been changed to protect their identity
