Plans by the government to relocate a refugee camp from Dzaleka in Dowa to Katili in Karonga need to consider concerns of communities around the areas.
We should state at the onset that Malawi, as a state party to the UN Convention on Refugees, has obligations to accommodate asylum seekers within its borders. As part of the human kind and global village, Malawians cannot begin to turn away asylum seekers based on security or cultural concerns.
That said, we wish to acknowledge that community members around Katili have legitimate concerns in as far as welcoming the refugees is concerned. This would be the first time for the communities to have a large number of foreigners come and settle in their area. The community members have heard that among the refugees are former militias and combatants who might be tempted to resort to some undesirable survival tactics once in the area.
There is also a concern that the locals might lose their ancestral land in a bid to give room to the asylum seekers. Setting up a refugee camp comes with severe deforestation which might aggravate issues of floods during the rainy seasons. And the people of Karonga know the damage that flash floods can cause.
But that is typical of any new community project. What is necessary is adequate sensitisation of stakeholders to ensure sustainability of such projects.
Listening to the concerns of the Katili communities, one gets the impression that the people are not against the relocation of the camp per se, but they want thorough discussion and assurance that their concerns have being taken into consideration.
What the government needs to do is to lend an ear to the community members. The government must also use community members from Mwanza and Dowa to share their experiences on how they handled the influx of refugees.
Using force will only endanger the lives of the refugees as the local communities might do everything possible to make the refugees feel unwelcome.
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