Survival Sex and Violence: The Women Trapped in Malawi’s Growing Settlement
Tears roll down the refugee’s face as she removes her glove. Her right hand is marked by a pale, mottled scarring. Her joints are stiff and deformed.
She resorted to sex work to make ends meet soon after she arrived alone at Malawi’s Dzaleka refugee camp in 2015, having fled there from Burundi.
On Christmas Eve in 2022, a client declined payment. When she blocked the doorway, he seized a very hot saucepan of beans and threw it at her, injuring her hand and chest.
Living conditions in Malawi has become increasingly hard, with budget reductions by foreign aid groups resulting in most eating just once a day.
At the same time, the opportunities of moving to countries in the west have been lowered from limited 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 killed in 2014.
Affected by her past, the adult 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 relocation.
Malawi, one of the world’s least developed countries, has a tradition of hosting refugees.
Dzaleka camp was built on the edges of the capital, Lilongwe, in 1994. The packed camp, which has become an impoverished area, was meant 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 enter monthly.
Malawi’s “shelter rule” prevents refugees from residing lawfully or working outside Dzaleka, making them especially vulnerable to funding cuts.
Cash payments 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 financial strains have led to a increase in sex work, abuse at home cases and children stealing.
Anne, a mother of seven, still assists and estimates that she sees four to six cases of domestic violence a week, double 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 reviewing 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 siblings.
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
