11% of the refugees from Malawian Dzaleka refugee camp are still on the run in search of opportunities in the Malawian urban areas, despite the statutory prohibition on such activity.

I met 20-year-old Chibuzo, a Congolese man from the Dzaleka refugee camp, at a local market in the capital of Lilongwe.  His journey did not end in Dzaleka; he chose to flee again, this time, ironically, from the refugee camp. One of those who “had it all” in days gone, and today deprived of any visible prospects for the future, Chibuzo left Dzaleka camp on foot just 4 days earlier.  He had been staying with a friend outside Lilongwe selling some goods at the market to pay for shelter. It was obvious he did not have a penny to his name.

“I am trying to figure out how to start a business here in Lilongwe. I’d like to open a barber shop. Dzaleka is a dead place,” he explains. “Many people flee to the city to make a living for their families, or capital to start a business - legal or not.”

Chibuzo is one of an estimated one thousand refugees who are trying to earn a living in Lilongwe or other urban areas. Legally, they are allowed to run businesses within the territory of the camp, but not outside its borders. Up until now the Malawian police have been turning a blind eye on the sellers, barbers and tailors launching their various enterprises in Lilongwe.  However the police raids are set to increase in the near future in order to round-up and return the runaways to the camp.

Malawian legislation allows for naturalization of refugees, letting them live and work on their lands, but only in exceptional cases. According to the National Coordinator for the Refugee Affairs, Charles Mopiwa, only two refugees have been able to obtain naturalization throughout the history of receiving refugees in Malawi.  One a businessman, the other a doctor.

“Refugees are expected to go back”, Mopiwa says. “There is no integration policy for them. They have different traditions, and it will be difficult for them to integrate. Besides, the land is scarce here so we have reservations about the free movement of the refugees on our lands.”

The two decade old Malawian Refugee Act  is currently undergoing revision in cooperation with the UNHCR, who argues that the refugees should have free access to the state’s territory, and to the courts. The act was originally implemented in 1986 to deal with the sudden influx of  2 million Mozambican refugees fleeing from the civil war. Back then they were integrated into the local communities, due to their close cultural ties with the Malawian population. They were successfully repatriated by 1994 – a well-executed initiative that makes Malawi proud.

Malawi has been promoting its voluntary repatriation program actively since 2004. According to a UNHCR estimate, in 2007 alone, the government, in cooperation with the UNHCR, repatriated thirteen Congolese and one Rwandan. Most refugees, however, are terrified to go home. Some of them are still convinced that they will be killed.

Going home is not an option for an orphan like Chibuzo.  He is caught between the idle life in the camp and ambitions to make a decent living. He has been in Dzaleka since 2004 with his two brothers and a sister. His father was shot in Uganda for his rebel political activity; his mother disappeared during the upheaval. Their documents were lost and the DRC did not recognize the family as legitimate citizens when they tried to return from Uganda. He barely remembers, or rather does not want to remember, how he and his siblings managed to get to Malawi.

“Tell me about life in Europe,” he asks me, his eyes sparkling .

Chibuzo is both a refugee and a migrant. He fled from his homeland because he had to, and ended  up on the Malawian markets because he chose to. No one can blame him for his ambition to live a normal life, and yet his choice was not easy. Refugees are treated with mistrust, hatred and at times with outright rejection here. After five weeks of constant attempts to strike roots in the capital, Chibuzo comes back to the camp with nothing. But it takes more for him to give up the hopes.

He is determined: “I will definitely figure something out!”