Sex Work and Exploitation: The Ladies Caught in Malawi’s Expanding Settlement
Tears stream down Francine’s* face as she takes off her glove. Her right hand is covered by a discolored, patchy injury mark. Her digits are rigid and unnaturally bent.
She resorted to sex work to survive soon after she arrived alone at Malawi’s Dzaleka shelter in 2015, having journeyed there from Burundi.
On Christmas Eve in 2022, a customer wouldn’t pay. When she obstructed the doorway, he took a boiling-hot saucepan of beans and threw it at her, burning her hand and chest.
Life for refugees in Malawi has become much more difficult, with budget reductions by global organizations resulting in most having only one meal a day.
At the same time, the prospects of moving to countries in the west have been reduced 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 left by her mother, Francine lived in Burundi with an relative involved in politics, who was shot in 2014.
Traumatized by her past, the young 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 relocation.
Malawi, one of the world’s least developed countries, has a tradition 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 arrive monthly.
Malawi’s “resettlement law” prevents refugees from staying officially 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 economic pressures have led to a increase in sex work, abuse at home cases and children theft.
Anne, a mother of seven, still volunteers and believes that she sees four to six victims of domestic violence a week, double 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 armed men killed her parents. Just 14, she was left looking after her three younger brothers and sisters.
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
