Prostitution and Abuse: The Ladies Caught in Malawi’s Overcrowded Refugee Camp

Tears stream down the refugee’s face as she removes her glove. Her dominant hand is scarred by a discolored, patchy burn scar. Her digits are unbending and deformed.

She resorted to sex work to survive soon after she came by herself at Malawi’s Dzaleka refugee camp in 2015, having travelled there from Burundi.

On December 24 in 2022, a customer declined payment. When she stood in the doorway, he grabbed a very hot saucepan of beans and threw it at her, scalding her hand and chest.

Life for refugees in Malawi has become increasingly hard, with financial decreases by international donors resulting in most eating just once a day.

At the same time, the chances of moving to countries in the west have been lowered from limited to distant.

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 deserted by her mother, Francine lived in Burundi with an relative involved in politics, who was gunned down in 2014.

Haunted by her trauma, the adult mother of children aged two and nine believes her life would be at risk if she returned to Burundi.

She wonders why she has never been selected for relocation.

Malawi, one of the world’s least developed countries, has a long history of hosting refugees.

Dzaleka camp was built on the perimeter of the capital, Lilongwe, in 1994. The packed camp, which has become an shantytown, was designed to host 10,000 people.

Now, more than 58,000 refugees reside 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 legally living or working outside Dzaleka, making them especially exposed to funding cuts.

Financial support have been reduced to 50% of what is needed for food.

All of the years that we have been here, UNHCR has never thought about us

The financial strains have led to a increase in sex work, abuse at home cases and children stealing.

Anne, a mother of seven, still volunteers and believes that she sees four to six people of domestic violence a week, twice the number of two years ago.

Malawi is looking into 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 attackers killed her parents. Just 14, she was left looking after her three younger siblings.

She had to turn to sex work and has a four-year-old child with an missing parent.

* Names have been changed to protect their identity