UN resettles Malawian albinos in North America for own safety

AS THE UN marked International Albinism Awareness Day on Tuesday, the UN refugee agency in Malawi reported it had been resettling albino refugees in North America since June last year due to continued attacks on them.

The agency said albino refugees in Malawi were reporting harassment – one refugee, now resettled in Canada, said people kept trying to cut his hair.

People with albinism are attacked in Malawi and other parts of Africa because of false beliefs that potions made from their body parts bring good luck and wealth.

The UNHCR says at least 20 people with albinism have been killed in Malawi since 2014.

Another 100 albinos, including children, have been subjected to abductions and their graves have been exhumed.

The UN has been screening albino refugees and their families eligible for asylum at the Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi.

The camp is home to more than 30 000 people, mainly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently reported that the new wave of killings and attacks targeting people with albinism over the past six months was being fuelled by systemic failures in Malawi’s criminal justice system, which left “members of this vulnerable group at the mercy of criminal gangs”.

HRW said that since January this year, at least two people with albinism had been killed, while seven more reported crimes such as attempted murder or abduction. The body said people with albinism were paying for political and social inaction with their lives.