Nduta (Tanzania): A dozen refugees arrested
They were arrested by the immigration police in the villages surrounding the Nduta camp, which only houses Burundian refugees. Most of those arrested are being held in the Kibondo district center, in the Kigoma region in northwestern Tanzania.
INFO SOS Médias Burundi
The patrols around the Nduta camp in Tanzania have been intensified recently, especially in the villages surrounding the camp. The aim, according to the police, is to limit the number of undocumented immigrants who would hide among the refugees.
These patrols, described by the police as a routine activity, have led to several arrests. According to local leaders, a dozen refugees are being detained. In some villages, refugees say they are in constant fear of being apprehended.
The suspects are accused of “violating public order” and are taken directly to Nyamusivya prison in the Kibondo district capital. Only those who pay a fine of 50,000 Tanzanian shillings are released, a sum considered exorbitant by many Burundians, given their poverty.
“The cells are overcrowded. Several people are detained there without their families knowing that they are incarcerated,” says a man who recently visited a relative locked up in this cell.
“I also saw Burundians who are not refugees, imprisoned in Nyamusivya,” he adds.
Most of the refugees who are arrested are those who leave the Nduta camp to do daily work, farmers who go to their fields. These are properties borrowed or rented from Tanzanians in the host community. Other refugees are arrested in local forests, looking for firewood.
Worrying fact
Each refugee who is arrested has his refugee status confiscated.
This worries the refugees.
“This means that the person concerned could end up on the list of forced repatriations, disguised as voluntary returns,” fear refugees who spoke to SOS Médias Burundi.
In Nduta, local leaders are working to raise awareness among refugees by recommending that they no longer go out without authorization, at the risk of being arrested.
They are calling on the camp management and the UNHCR to advocate for these people because they are under their responsibility. https://www.sosmediasburundi.org/2023/09/08/nduta-tanzanie-rafle-de-plus-de-cent-refugies-burundais/
Nduta is home to more than 58,000 Burundian refugees. Its occupants fled the 2015 crisis following another controversial term of late President Pierre Nkurunziza the same year, for the most part.
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A sign indicating the Kibondo district court that judges Burundian refugees ©️ SOS Médias Burundi
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