Prostitution and Exploitation: The Women Stranded in Malawi’s Expanding Settlement
Tears roll down Francine’s* face as she takes off her glove. Her hand is covered by a faded, uneven scarring. Her joints are stiff and deformed.
Francine turned to sex work to make ends meet soon after she reached at Malawi’s Dzaleka shelter in 2015, having journeyed there from Burundi.
On Christmas Eve in 2022, a patron refused to pay. When she obstructed the doorway, he grabbed a very hot saucepan of beans and flung it at her, scalding her hand and chest.
Living conditions in Malawi has become increasingly hard, with budget reductions by foreign aid groups resulting in most having only one meal a day.
At the same time, the prospects of resettlement to countries in the west have been lowered from slim to remote.
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 relative involved in politics, who was gunned down in 2014.
Haunted by her trauma, the 29-year-old mother of children aged two and nine believes her life would be at risk if she returned to Burundi.
She doubts why she has never been selected for transfer.
Malawi, one of the world’s least developed countries, has a long history of welcoming refugees.
Dzaleka camp was built on the edges of the capital, Lilongwe, in 1994. The densely populated 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 “resettlement law” prevents refugees from staying officially or being employed outside Dzaleka, making them especially vulnerable to funding cuts.
Financial support have been lowered to 50% of what is needed for food.
All of the years that we have been here, UNHCR has never thought about us
The economic pressures have led to a surge in sex work, abuse at home cases and children theft.
Anne, a mother of seven, still helps and estimates that she sees four to six cases of domestic violence a week, twice the number of two years ago.
Malawi is considering 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 family members.
She had to turn to sex work and has a four-year-old child with an man who left.
* Names have been changed to protect their identity
