Malawi received $80 million from the UN High Commissioner for the Refugees (UNHCR) toward the construction of a second refugee camp in the northern region, an official told Anadolu on Tuesday.
The Southern African nation currently hosts 53,000 refugees and asylum seekers at its only refugee camp, Dzaleka, in the central region.
Refugees from Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia have been at the camp since the early 1990s.
Homeland Security Minister Zikhale Ng'oma told Anadolu that the donation would help construct a second camp that "would ease out congestion at Dzaleka which currently hosts more than what it requires."
'Overwhelmed by influx'
"As a nation, we are overwhelmed by an influx of refugees coming to Malawi on a daily basis seeking a place where they would find peace. But we are having challenges to accommodate all of them at one camp. This donation is therefore a response to our appeal to have another facility in the northern region of the country," said Ng'oma.
"We would like to have a place where refugees and asylum seekers would stay and conduct their businesses without any challenges," he added.
Malawi is implementing a joint voluntary refugee repatriation programme with the UN refugee agency "to allow refugees and asylum seekers to return to their home countries willingly."
The programme has so far seen 200 refugees return to their countries.
Firearms
George Phiri, a social commentator told Anadolu that there was a need for a "practical solution to minimise an influx of refugees coming to the country in order to address some social challenges which the country is experiencing due to the high numbers of refugees coming to the country."
"We understand what is happening elsewhere across Africa, but let continental bodies like the African Union work out a practical solution that would see to it that people don't run away from their home countries. As a nation, we are overwhelmed by the number of people we are hosting," Phiri said.
There have been concerns about a recent proliferation of firearms among refugees at Dzaleka, a situation that security organs claim has fuelled insecurity in some parts of the country.
In 2023, the Malawi government forcibly removed all refugees who were doing business in major towns and cities and relocated them to the camp, a move which was widely condemned by human rights bodies as "gross abuse of refugees' rights."
National insecurity
The government has always defended the move claiming it was done "in the interest of national security."
At the camp, refugees are provided a monthly living allowance and food rations.
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