This document contains major provisions of the 1989 Refugee Act of Malawi. These provisions open with definitions of terms used, including "family member" (a spouse or spouses, unmarried children under the age of 21, and other dependents) and "refugee" (a person with a well-grounded fear of persecution for race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinion who is outside his country and fearful or unwilling to return or a person who must leave his country because of external aggression, occupation, foreign domination, or public disorder). The Act then establishes a Refugee Committee to handle applications and make decisions regarding refugee status. Group determinations can be made upon official publication of this intention. Refugee status will be withheld from criminals (including war criminals), those who pose a threat to the national security of Malawi, or from those who are guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the Organization of African Unity or of the UN. The Act sets out the refugee application procedures for persons who entered Malawi legally or illegally. An appeals process is established for persons dissatisfied with the actions of the Committee. Conditions are also set whereby a person ceases to be a refugee. These include voluntary repatriation or acquiring a new nationality as well as a change in the circumstances which exist in the country from which the person has been recognized as a refugee which remove the necessity for the person to be a refugee.

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