200
CONFIDENTIAL
BRITISH HIgh commisSION
PO Box 30042 Lilongwe Malawi
Exter
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Telephone Lilongwe 731544 Telex 4727 UKREP MI
長してん
28
P W Chandley Esq
CA FD FCO
LONDON
Wear later
MAS 243/43
Your reference
Our reference
Date
22 August 1986
DOMI. TOLIMA, IND we Musial peth's winte 124.
JC Gen 243!
·3 SEP 1936
A61217
UNCHR: 37TH EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING IN GENEVA,
616 OCTOBER 1986
2.
Thank you for your letter of 28 July.
With the proviso that the Malawi Government do not officially recognise that a refugee problem exists in Malawi (those diplaced Mozambicans in Malawi being "family" from the same tribe as opposed to refugees), I have attempted to answer the most relevant points in Mrs Wyeth's minute of 24 July. We do not have any official figures for the numbers of Mozambican refugees involved, but estimates from 15,000 to 30,000 seem to be the order of the day, mostly congregated in the border areas of Mulanje and Dedza/Ntcheu (see my letters of 28 July and 11 August to Jack Jones).
16
JCM 02012 (11)
3. (1) The refugee problem in Malawi is a relatively recent one. There has been a build up of refugees as a result of the fighting between FRELIMO and RENAMO in Mozambique. Over the past six months, numbers have increased which has caused the Malawi government to call for help from the outside relief agencies. While still not officially calling them refugees, the UNDP Mission here had been approached by the Malawi Government to build facilities for up to 7,000 displaced persons at Mtakataka near the lakeshore. The Malawi Government have not, so far as I am aware, offered refugee status and are unlikely to do so for the following reasons. The facilities, work on which was to have begun soon, would have been adequate, but no more than adequate, as the Malawi Government did not wish to encourage the refugees to stay longer than was absolutely necessary. The Government were also concerned that Malawians should not think that the refugees were better off than they (the Malawians) were, or for that matter Mozambicans who have stayed behind on their side of the border! For those who remain in the border area, conditions are pretty grim, but probably no more so than what they left behind in Mozambique.
CONFIDENTIAL
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