International Refugee Day: between hope and resignation among Burundian refugees

Every June 20, the world celebrates Refugee Day, an opportunity to think of them and defend, protect and promote their rights, according to the UNHCR. For more than 300,000 Burundians who are still in camps in more than seven countries, life is hard. SOS Médias Burundi sidewalk microphone in the refugee camps. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

According to the UNHCR press release, World Refugee Day is an international day established by the United Nations to pay tribute to refugees across the world. It highlights the rights, needs and dreams of those who are forced to flee their homeland.

SOS Médias Burundi portable microphone in the refugee camps in the DRC, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia found a completely different reality.

Nduta (Tanzania): resignation

Nduta is the camp that shelters the largest number of Burundian refugees: more than 61,000, who, however, see the number of their days numbered.

“Every morning, before waking up, I count months and days. I see December 31st coming quickly. I’m a little confused. The warning signs which are unmistakable are visible: markets destroyed, schools and health centers closed one after the other, incessant reminders and untimely warnings to prepare for the worst,…” so sadly says a father of a family who does not intend to “return even if the camp were to be burned”.

What this Burundian refugee talks about in a parable is the announced closure of Burundian refugee camps in Tanzania. A measure taken by the tripartite commission made up of the Burundian and Tanzanian governments as well as the UNHCR, last November.

The three partners agreed to “voluntarily” repatriate all Burundian refugees before their camps are closed late next December. Unwanted forcing, according to Burundian refugees

“We hope that this June will be an opportunity to reconsider this decision otherwise it would be the last one that we celebrate here in Tanzania. So it constitutes a test to protect us or violate our rights. We are between fear and resignation,” say these Burundians.

Before concluding: “We are not in paradise in Tanzania, we know that! If there was peace at home, we were not going to stay here. So let them hear our alert. Otherwise, they will cry crocodile tears once the worst has happened, because some of us would rather leave our lives here instead of getting in our trucks and going back.”

Nyarugusu (Tanzania): suspicious interviews

On the other side of the same Kigoma region in Tanzania, at the Nyarugusu camp, nearly 50,000 Burundians say they are worried about the interviews announced to determine those who will stay and continue to benefit from UNHCR protection.

Said interviews will be conducted by Tanzanian officials as indicated by the inspector in charge of refugees in this region.

John Walioba Mwita seemed to sow discord at the Nyarugusu camp very recently.

“As some of you are reluctant, we are going to conduct individual interviews to find out how to do it but the deadline is still maintained at December 2024. The few refugees who have demonstrated an increased risk of insecurity will be able to continue to benefit from protection,” he said.

These declarations contain “one thing and its opposite” according to the refugees.

“How can we talk about interviews to determine who can return and who should stay, while affirming that peace fully reigns in Burundi?“, they exclaim. “We will not be able to respond to this call because we already know the results before the exercise begins,” they suggest.
The CBDH/VICAR, an NGO which defends the rights of refugees living in the camps, doubts the objectivity of this generalized procedure, because, it asserts, “the Tanzanian government has already taken a position”.

“The risk is that UNHCR continues to support this violation of refugee rights, when it should respect the principles of the 1951 Geneva Convention on the protection of refugees, as the UNHCR regional representative has clearly stated”, worries Léopold Sharangabo, legal representative of the CBDH/VICAR.

“We are warning them, we are going to initiate legal proceedings in coalition with other activists to defend the rights of these Burundians who are suffering crimes in full view of all these humanitarians who have failed in their mission,” he said.

Kakuma (Kenya): growing crime

At the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, the only concern is widespread insecurity which mainly targets Burundians and Congolese.

One of the local leaders affirmed that between 25 and 30 Burundian and Congolese refugees died, victims of aggression during the first half of 2024. A group of Sudanese refugees is singled out.

“We do not understand why the UNHCR and the camp administration are not taking serious measures when every week there are cries of alarm. We fear mob justice, and this has started to manifest itself in Kalobeyei,” he says.

“The first half of 2024 has been particularly deadly here at camp. We do not want this to continue, otherwise we suspect the complacent eye of the police,” say refugees.

They also remember the untimely reduction or even the elimination of rations for many refugees, which triggered protest movement in the streets of Kakuma last May.

“We believe the UNHCR will be able to announce new measures to improve our living conditions,” hope some of the Burundians who live in this camp sheltering more than 200,000 refugees including more than 25,000 Burundians.

Mahama (Rwanda): in search of self-sufficiency

At the Mahama camp, SOS Médias Burundi wanted to talk about successful cases, although isolated, to encourage others to follow in their footsteps.

Athanase is the perfect example of success. He went from a simple shopkeeper to a wholesaler in the Mahama I zone market.

” I know him well. He started with a small capital of barely a single bag of rice when we arrived here in 2015,” explains his neighbor, a fellow Burundian.

“Right now, he’s inspiring everyone here. NGOs visit him. He expanded his business to the point of sourcing outside of Kirehe district, even as far as Kigali. He himself built up a stock of supplies for the camp and the surrounding area with shop items, food and alcoholic drinks, etc.,” testify other compatriots.

“He is the only one who parks a Fuso type truck here to transport his products and we are proud of it,” they say.

In the Mahama camp, in eastern Rwanda, there are small financing projects that provide credit to refugees who wish to start business.

“In any case, anyone who has a business project cannot lack capital. People here prefer to buy transport motorbikes which are very numerous here,” they say.

The Refugee Day celebrated each year was also an opportunity for other refugees in this camp to express wishes regarding the improvement of their living conditions, especially since the food ration has been drastically reduced and the combustible gas is no longer sufficient.

As to the Congolese refugees (Tutsis) from the same camp, they want to alert the world and demand a return to peace in their country, which would allow their repatriation.

Last March, they held a demonstration march, and now they are taking advantage of the day dedicated to them to rebel against the government of the DRC as well as the silence of the international community which, according to them, contributes to the degradation of the situation in eastern Congo.

“It’s been going on for a long time and we’ve had enough. We protest against this genocide which is being committed against our relatives who speak Kinyarwanda in the East of the DRC. The massacres are committed in full view of everyone, but they remain silent. We ask the international community to act without delay to stop these killings,” said a Congolese refugee.

Most of the Congolese recently transferred to this camp, initially built for Burundian refugees, have fled the DRC since 2010. Mahama has more than 63,000 refugees, including more than 40,000 Burundians, the rest being Congolese.

Nakivale (Uganda): need for financing for small projects

In the Nakivale camp, which currently has more than 140,000 refugees including more than 33,000 Burundians, several refugees wish to receive funding for small empowerment projects to escape extreme poverty.

“Here, we really need small amounts of capital to start small businesses and get out of dependence. This is more than urgent because a large number of refugees no longer receive food, much less money,” indicate some Burundians who point out that many of them have already submitted small projects which have not been still been subsidized.

They want International Refugee Day to be a kind of introspection.

“We have launched this call several times, we want the 2024 edition to provide more solutions than broken promises,” they say.

Another sad reality is the non-schooling of refugee children in the Nakivale camp.

School dropouts are reaching a peak in this camp, especially among Burundian refugees, where the figures are alarming: 60%, according to teachers for the first term alone. The main cause given is the lack of school fees.

Burundians are the most affected by this situation, as other communities either have income-generating activities or have relatives living in Europe or America and they can easily bear the exorbitant school fees.

“But for us who have nothing, it is almost normal because instead of paying more than 100,000 Ugandan shillings to school for a single child, I prefer to buy enough to feed my whole family,” says a Burundian refugee, family father.

The situation becomes even more complicated since almost all educational establishments are private.

The consequences are numerous and are mainly linked to juvenile delinquency with unwanted pregnancies among young girls aged 13 to 15, the consumption of prohibited drugs and drinks among young boys and even banditry.

These Burundian refugees are asking for assistance from humanitarians.

Dzaleka (Malawi): silencing discordant voices

Dzaleka, which shelters more than 50,000 refugees including more than 11,000 Burundians, refugees are worried that a leader who dares to defend or plead for them is mistreated. The example they give is the case of a recently sacked leader of the Congolese community.

“He did nothing but plead for us, speak out loud about the issue of insecurity, the lack of drinking water and the poor reception at the dispensary. So, the administration was quick to replace him with his deputy. His only fault: daring,” insist refugees.

Malawi Police officers in raid on refugees from Africa’s Great Lakes

Last May, “There Is Hope”, an NGO run by a Canadian of Burundian origin who passed through the Dzaleka camp, was ordered to close. His legal representative, known as Innocent, was forced to leave Malawi. He had lived in this camp before migrating to Canada, then returned to help his community.

“There Is Hope was really an alternative solution for our precarious situation because it helped several children to go to school, the elderly, victims of sexual violence, etc. Its leader was also like our spokesperson because it was he who made our voices heard,” testifies a leader from one of the villages of Dzaleka.

“There Is Hope” has been accused of sabotaging the initiatives of humanitarian NGOs and of replacing itself as a community leader.

“It is in fact a way of silencing any discordant voice that tries to plead for us because Innocent could knock anywhere, whether among humanitarians or the Malawian administration,” say Burundian refugees.

They ask UNHCR and the administration of the Dowa district where the said camp is located to consider their living conditions.

Small anecdote: they want the day dedicated to them to be celebrated within their camp instead of the ceremonies taking place in the district capital as is customary. “Otherwise, it is not ours because it is not celebrated here,” they say.

Meheba (Zambia): unrecognized marriage certificates

Many Burundian and Congolese refugees are surprised to see that their marriage certificates received in their respective countries are not recognized by the Zambian administration, which is not without consequences.

“First it is family dislocation, then it encourages divorce because nothing prevents a partner from entering into another marriage, and then the children do not benefit from the advantages of a marriage from their parents,” regret Burundians who live in the Meheba camp which has more than 27,000 refugees including 3,000 Burundians.

Refugees in front of a health facility in Meheba, Zambia

They are subsequently forced to repeat the oath and commitment. Here again, things are not easy.

“Many of us prefer not to remarry under Zambian law. And, for those who are thinking about it, the cost is exorbitant: difficult to find a sum required between 900 and 1000 Zambian kwacha (35-39 USD),” they say.
Taking advantage of the theme of International Refugee Day, 2024 edition, which is: “For a world that welcomes refugees”, these refugees are asking UNHCR to advocate for them at the local administration level.

“We are taking this opportunity to ask UNHCR to be our lawyer, so that we have at least a temporary marriage certificate. This would help us a lot even in the event of resettlement to other countries because it would prove that one given man is the husband of someone, to also avoid frequent domestic violence here,” they say.

This wish is formulated for more than 75,000 refugees in Zambia, including more than 59,000 Congolese and more than 10,000 Burundians who reside in the Mantapala, Meheba and Mayukwayukwa camps.

Mulongwe (DRC): camp closed in on itself

In Mulongwe, in the province of South Kivu, more than 15,000 Burundian refugees live in fear of being chased out by the Babembe natives. The latter want to prevent refugees from doing rural or commercial work outside the camp.

“They told us that from next August, the host community will recover their fields, and therefore that we must close the small markets, shops, restaurants and bars around the camp,” says Julienne, a Burundian who does agricultural work there.

These refugees do not intend to comply because, they say, these income-generating activities provide them with a living.

Another concern, not the least, is that these Burundians are very often assimilated to the rebels who swarm in the surrounding area, or are victims of them.

Lusenda (DRC): housing leaves something to be desired

Most of more than 26,000 Burundian refugees living in this camp live in old houses, most of them built since 2016.

“When it rains at night, we have nowhere to shelter, our children often get sick from cold-related pneumonia. The tents have holes everywhere, it’s like we’re sleeping under the stars,” says Chantal, mother of 5 children.

Not to mention the lack of kitchen utensils and other household materials. “For six years, no assistance of this kind,” she said.

Fragile solidarity…

This year, World Refugee Day focuses on solidarity with refugees.

According to the United Nations agency, “these people need our solidarity, today more than ever. Showing solidarity means keeping our doors open, recognizing the strengths and achievements of refugees, and reflecting on the challenges they face.”

However, Burundians in these camps believe that this year’s theme does not seem to concern them because it does not fit with the reality of their daily life.

“It seems like it’s the contrast. Imagine Tanzania and even the UNHCR chasing us away or forcing us to return, when they should be in solidarity and compassion with us as the theme demands,” say refugees from the Nduta and Nyarugusu camps.

UNHCR goes further in its statement for the year. “Solidarity with people forced to flee also means ensuring that they have the opportunity to rebuild within the communities that welcomed them, and providing host countries with the means they need to welcome and help the refugees,” it reads.

This aspect is much more criticized by refugees in Rwanda, Uganda, DRC and Kenya, especially following the insecurity they endure, the poverty that threatens them, the lack of funding accused by the UNHCR and the repetitive cutting of the ration that refugees have been facing in recent months.

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A banner erected in a refugee camp in Tanzania on the sidelines of the day dedicated to refugees