Dzaleka had been a political prison before it was transformed into a refugee camp in response to a massive influx of refugees from Africa's Great Lakes region in 1994. Primary countries of origin represented in the camp include the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Prior to becoming a refugee camp, the Dzaleka facility had served as a political prison for around 6, 000 inmates.
UNHCR has registered 86,181 refugees and asylum-seekers. More than half of the refugee population fled from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with the remaining population originating from Burundi, Rwanda, and others from the East and Horn of African countries. Most of the refugees in Malawi live in the heavily congested Dzaleka Refugee Camp which has 15,997 households located near the capital Lilongwe and was set up in 1994 to accommodate just between 10,000 and 12,000 people.
