Tanzania : the apocalypse for Burundian refugees is coming

The ministry in charge of refugees in Tanzania has announced a possible end to the Burundian refugee status within a “very short” time frame. The special envoy of the said ministry visited two camps to deliver this “sad news” which will be “materialized” by a meeting of the tripartite commission next week in Dar-es-Salaam. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The “famous” Sudi Mwakibasi, permanent secretary at the Tanzanian Ministry of the Interior, first went to Nyarugusu on Tuesday before continuing on Wednesday with Nduta, two large camps where nearly 118,000 Burundian refugees are concentrated.

He took care to meet all the community leaders, village and zone chiefs as well as all the humanitarian agencies operating in these two camps so that his worrying message could get across.

“Go and announce to the Burundian refugees that you represent that the end of refugee status is on the horizon. We’ve always said it again and again! Now it’s coming to fruition in a time that is not far away, in any case!”, he clarified, sending community leaders to go and “preach” what he described as “good news”, as told by these zone and village chiefs at the Nyarugusu and Nduta camps who took part in these meetings.

The official of the Ministry of the Interior in charge of refugees stressed that all the necessary arrangements have been taken to begin “massive and rapid repatriation”.

According to Sudi Mwakibasi, a meeting of the tripartite commission composed of Burundi, Tanzania and the UNHCR is scheduled for next week to approve the decision, apparently announced before its official signing.

“In this meeting, we will cut the ribbon to put an end to the status of Burundian refugees on the Tanzanian soil. Several choices will be open : either be repatriated, or apply for naturalization or even live as a legal foreigner. So prepare those you represent well!”, he declared, in a rather decentralized tone “as if he were actually announcing good news”, testify refugees.

Caution

He advised the refugees not to resist.

“We ask you to adjust to the measure that will be taken by the tripartite commission, you have already been warned of this. Be calm, calm and follow the path that will be traced to you, otherwise we will use all possible means to ensure security”, he insisted, remember the leaders of the refugees who, “moved, did not even have asked questions or made comments.

Sorting…

The representative of the Ministry of the Interior then indicated that a census will be carried out so that “those who actually require special protection are known”. And besides, said Sudi Mwakibasi, “the UNHCR has already collected these data, it remains for them to be displayed”.

Here, the refugees wonder when this census “to determine the level of security would have been conducted without being informed”.

Warning signs …

“They have started again”, say refugees. “They” are young civilian guards and police officers who have destroyed corn fields, banana plantations and beans since last weekend.

Small markets which had entered the villages and on the grounds of zone 9 were also vandalized at Nyarugusu camp.

“It’s a clear sign that they are going to take action, but we are not going to give in, we are going to resist, no one is going to get into their trucks, they will be able to repatriate our corpses”, reacted several refugees in both camps.

Bad memories from 2012…

In 2012, the last Mtabila camp was destroyed and burned in the Kigoma region which still hosts Nyarugusu and Nduta. At the time, the camp hosted Burundian refugees who had fled the crises of 1972 and 1993.

“I remember that my father was almost assassinated when he and his compatriots resisted. I saw officials and people who jumped from trucks that were running at high speed instead of getting killed in Burundi. I would prefer to die like this!“, suggests a Burundian, who is in his third refuge in Tanzania since the crisis of 1972 which took away more Hutus than Tutsis.

Burundian refugees ask the international community to denounce Sudi Mwakibasi’s statements and call on the UNHCR not to let this happen.

This is the first time that a special envoy from the Ministry of the Interior, accompanied by an official from the Kigoma region (northwest Tanzania), both in charge of refugees, has given this type of speech, “that has many serious consequences”, according to Burundian refugees.

They call on Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan to take charge of this issue and act in accordance with international conventions relating to the protection of refugees that her country ratified, otherwise, they say, the country will be responsible before international tribunals.

And they wonder : “why is it only Tanzania that wants to put an end to the status of Burundian refugees while there are tens of thousands in Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and the DRC? That is to say that the Burundian and Tanzanian authorities are collaborating to harm the refugees! And besides, we are calling on the East African Community to plead in our favor”, add these desperate Burundians.

The UNHCR has not yet reacted

However, the refugee question is becoming a political issue. An opposition party in Tanzania, “ACT-The Alliance for Change and Transparency” (Chama cha Wazalendo) recently called on the Tanzanian government to “no longer trample on the rights of the refugees it hosts”, citing in particular the closure of marketplaces, enforced disappearances and restrictions on the rights of freedom and movement.

Zito Zuberi Kabwe, the leader of this party, in a meeting which took place this Tuesday in Kibondo district where the Nduta camp is located, deplored that “Congolese refugees are well treated unlike the Burundians”.

He spoke of an “unacceptable” situation.