Uvira : due to lack of schools for their children, some Burundian asylum seekers opt for repatriation

Burundians living in the transit camps of Kamvimvira and Sange in the province of South Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo are asking the UNHCR to facilitate their repatriation. They explain that these temporary camps do not have schools for their children. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Some parents have told SOS Médias Burundi that their children have just spent two years without going to school.

“Since we have been here, our children have not been in school. There are no schools in the camp. Our children have nothing to do. They spend their time begging for money from passengers who take the Bujumbura-Bukavu section, while others go begging in restaurants and houses,” lamented a mother from the Kavimvira transit camp.

Some are forced to return to Burundi and ask the UNHCR to assist them with the procedures.

This is the case of Nshimiyimana, a man in his thirties, who has been living in this camp for a year.

“I have two children who were studying in primary school. I want to return to my country so that my children can go back to school,” he explained, while deploring that the camp officials refuse to let them return before arriving in the Mulongwe camp in the Fizi territory (same province).

The DRC is home to more than 41,000 Burundian refugees mainly settled in the Mulongwe and Lusenda camps based in Fizi, in addition to asylum seekers staying for the most part in Sange and Kamvimvira.