Tanzania : hundreds of Burundians arrested, thirteen children jailed for demanding their wages

SOS Médias Burundi

Nyamisivya, June 9, 2025 — Since February 28, thirteen Burundian teenagers have been languishing in Nyamisivya prison, in northwest Tanzania. Their “crime” : having dared to demand the wages owed to them after working on tobacco plantations. They are aged between 12 and 18 years.

Their testimonies, collected by SOS Médias Burundi, reveal a chilling reality. These young people had left their villages in search of a livelihood, hoping to earn a little money in the tobacco fields. But their dream turned into a nightmare.

Two of them managed to escape arrest. The first recounts how, one evening, Tanzanian militiamen armed with sticks arrived.

“They rounded us up and accused us of causing trouble because we were demanding our wages,” he says.
“They left, then came back with police officers. I was lucky. I was in the bathroom. I hid. The next day, I was able to return to Burundi.”

The second survivor had left the area the day before the last wave of arrests, on May 5.

“I had worked 18 months in these fields, 12 of them without pay. My second employer took pity on me. He paid the militiamen to smuggle me across the border,” he confides.

In total, there were fifteen of them. Thirteen were arrested, two fled. Almost all of them children, who had left to look for a living, and are now caught in a cycle they have no control over.

According to information gathered by SOS Médias Burundi, these arrests are part of a larger phenomenon. Since last year, several hundred Burundians working in Tanzania have been arrested for demanding their wages, or intercepted by young militiamen affiliated with the ruling party in Tanzania while attempting to return home. Many of these seasonal workers end up in Tanzanian jails without trial.

Tanzanian authorities are talking about an agreement being negotiated with the Burundian government to arrange the release of the thirteen teenagers from Nyamisivya. But on the ground, no date has been set, no trial has been announced. Families on both sides of the border are waiting, anxious.

In the meantime, these thirteen young people are still sleeping behind bars. Simply for daring to demand what they are owed.