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Zimbabwe: Humanitarian access denied to increasingly vulnerable former farm workers
Sarah Martin and Andrea Lari, Refugees International - USA
July 23, 2004

Read the article on the Refugees International website

In Zimbabwe economic disruption and political intimidation and harassment have caused 150,000 former farm workers to become internally displaced. As conditions for the former farm workers deteriorate, the Government of Zimbabwe is imposing restrictions and preventing humanitarian agencies from providing them assistance, resulting in a hidden crisis of internal displacement in the country.

Since 2000, the economic situation of Zimbabwe has progressively deteriorated: production of food has dropped and inflation has skyrocketed to more than 400 percent annually. Unemployment has spread rapidly. An estimated 78% of farm workers, who represented 25% of the national active working force, have lost their jobs. This crisis has been caused by the poor implementation of the Fast Track Land Reform program by the Government of Zimbabwe, compounded by regional droughts that have effected crop production. The crisis has a political dimension as well, as the ruling party, ZANU-PF, has targeted the farm workers as a potential political base for the opposition. The government has implemented special political re-education programs while impeding humanitarian access to organizations deemed to be part of the political opposition to consolidate their political strength in anticipation of upcoming parliamentary elections.

Many of the commercial farms that were marked for acquisition under the Fast Track Land Reform were seized violently. A farm worker interviewed by Refugees International described it by saying, "The war veterans came with soldiers and guns and threw tear gas to threaten us when they seized our farm." Farm workers, accused of supporting the former farm owners, were ordered to leave their houses instantly, unable to collect even their belongings. The war veterans destroyed houses to push farm workers off the land and to ensure that they could not return. In some cases, people were ferried to communal areas or dumped at road sides.

Not all of the former farm workers have been displaced due to violent eviction. Displacement is also due to economic conditions on the former commercial farms. Some of the new settlers have been unable to farm their allotment of land due to lack of financial capital or lack of essential agricultural inputs. Many of the new settlers refuse to or cannot pay minimum wage to farm workers. The current minimum wage is Z$72,000 per month (approximately $13) but most of the farm workers told us that the new settlers only pay them about Z$15,000 per month (approximately $3). The former farm workers accuse them of using intimidation, hunger, and other methods to get the farm workers to work for them in "slave labor" conditions. In some case, new settlers ban access to NGOs that provide food assistance telling farm workers, "If you are getting food, you will be sent out of the farm".

The majority of former farm workers have opted to stay on the farms or remain "trapped" on the land. Those who have remained have few livelihood options and turn to other activities such as gold panning and hunting of game for commercial sales. "My wife works for the new settlers to keep the peace and I pan for gold," said one farm worker. "Life on the farm is not good but I have nowhere else to go." Some find themselves near starvation with no access to food or services. Due to lack of options, many eventually end up working for the new settlers at drastically reduced wages or in exchange for goods, such as food or school uniforms for their children. Lack of sufficient food and access to basic services such as water and sanitation, healthcare and primary education have made the former farm workers that are trapped on the farms increasingly vulnerable.

Decreased access to healthcare services has greatly increased the susceptibility of former farm workers to HIV/AIDS and other diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria. Former farm workers complained that there had been an outbreak of malaria on the farm as they did not have equipment to drain standing water. They told us, "The former farmer used to do this but they broke his equipment when they chased him off the farm." Lacking money to go to the clinic, some of the children had died, but there was a former health worker on the farm who negotiated with the clinic workers for free medicine that the farm workers could not afford to buy.

The high rate of HIV/AIDS infection has caused a very high orphan population on most of the farms. It is estimated that there are 900,000 to 1.2 million orphans in Zimbabwe and an average of 12 orphans per commercial farm. Both orphans and children of former farm-workers are particularly impacted by the economic problems. Besides insufficient food, children lack money for uniforms, supplies, and transport to schools. Some children have to work as casual labor on farms, performing tasks such as picking cotton or weeding crops to help support their families. Orphans are usually the first to drop out of school for lack of funds. These orphans are vulnerable to exploitation as child labor. RI interviewed a 14-year-old girl who told us, "I was paid 2500 Z$ (50 cents) a day to weed maize fields. I did this to earn the money that I needed for a school uniform. They will not let you in the school if you do not have a uniform." Older orphans are drifting to towns to add to the expanding street child population and to work as prostitutes. to work as prostitutes.

In the face of these rapidly growing levels of vulnerability, the Government of Zimbabwe, both at national and local levels, is setting barriers to access for humanitarian agencies. By progressively reducing the operational space of humanitarian agencies, the government is preventing assistance from reaching those who need it. The government has begun instituting new administrative requirements such as signing new memorandums of understanding that restrict access, demanding two weeks advance notice for field visits, and requesting personal details on staff, including residential addresses. Many operational agencies are treated with suspicion by the government and their access is blocked. NGOs that receive funding from "unfriendly" foreign countries (countries who have criticized the Government of Zimbabwe’s actions) or are perceived as sympathetic to the political opposition find themselves facing barriers to their work. Some NGOs claim that they are targeted for harassment because their work with displaced populations threatens to show that the land reform program has been unsuccessful in addressing inequity in land ownership.ed populations threatens to show that the land reform program has been unsuccessful in addressing inequity in land ownership.

Refugees International, therefore, recommends that:

• The Government of Zimbabwe acknowledge that former farm workers are increasingly vulnerable and take steps to meet their basic needs, including allowing international organizations to provide direct assistance to them.
• The Government of Zimbabwe form mixed needs assessment teams with local NGOs to conduct visits and ascertain the exact levels of vulnerability of groups living in the former commercial farming areas.
• The Government of Zimbabwe, the United Nations, and the donor community devise a plan of action for addressing the reestablishment of vital community services, such as health clinics, water points and primary education facilities.

Advocates Sarah Martin and Andrea Lari recently completed as assessment mission to Zimbabwe.

[Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters.]

For more information:
Email: ri@refugeesinternational.org

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