On World Refugee Day (20 June), rights groups called on Mozambican authorities to release a group of 16 African refugees and asylum seekers detained in the country since 2019 and who are held in conditions in which their health is not safeguarded. The group, which includes 15 Congolese people and one Ethiopian man, were arrested […]
Last updated: July 2024
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International Treaties Ratified
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CAT, Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
1999
2017
ICRMW, International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
2013
2017
CTOCSP, Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
2006
2017
CTOCTP, Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
2006
2017
OPCAT, Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
2014
2014
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Committee on the Rights of the Child
§ 43. "Recalling joint general comments No. 3 and No. 4 (2017) of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families/No. 22 and No. 23 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the human rights of children in the context of international migration, the Committee recommends that the State party:
(a) Ensure that asylum procedures systematically identify and refer unaccompanied or separated children to appropriate protection and support services; facilitate these children ’ s access to services such as education and health care; and ensure that best interests assessments are carried out at all stages of the procedures, including by ensuring safety and security for asylum-seeking and refugee children in camps;
(b) Ensure that all the children living in Maratane refugee camp have full access to the existing child protection system, including education and health services;
(c) Consider withdrawing all of its reservations to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees."
2019
2019
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APRW, Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol)
2005
2005
2017
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Country Updates
On World Refugee Day (20 June), rights groups called on Mozambican authorities to release a group of 16 African refugees and asylum seekers detained in the country since 2019 and who are held in conditions in which their health is not safeguarded. The group, which includes 15 Congolese people and one Ethiopian man, were arrested (and allegedly beaten) by police and immigration officers in Maratane Refugee Camp in the north-east of the country and have since been arbitrarily detained in Pemba, Cabo Delgado province. According to Amnesty International, the group have been held in inhuman conditions with no access to clean drinking water and no toilet in their cell, and no measures have been implemented in the prison to prevent the spread of Covid-19. They have not been provided with beds and instead are reported to be sleeping on sheets of paper on the floor. In June 2019, it was also reported that the group had been denied food and medical attention, and in April 2019 the prison in which they are held was reported to have been flooded and damaged by Cyclone Kenneth.
Amnesty said in a 20 June statement, “The Mozambican government must immediately and unconditionally end the arbitrary detention of these refugees and release them without any delay or charge them with internationally recognizable offences if they have committed any crime.” In January 2019, Mozambican authorities had attempted to deport seven of the asylum seekers to the Democratic Republic of Congo, but Congolese immigration authorities denied them entry.
In a previous case in 2018 involving the six-month detention of three asylum seekers, a High Court ordered their release, affirming the rights of asylum seekers within the country. According to the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, despite Article 11 of the country’s Refugee Act stating that any criminal or administrative proceedings directly connected with illegal entry shall be suspended immediately upon the submission of the petition, asylum seekers have continued to be arrested and detained for illegal entry.
