Lusaka : over a hundred Burundians have been arrested

The Zambian immigration police have carried out raids in different districts of the capital Lusaka in recent days. According to our sources, more than 100 Burundian nationals, including several refugees, have been arrested. A Burundian organization speaks of at least 156 arrested.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The operation began in mid-December but it was on the night of the 27th that many Burundians were arrested.

“We are arrested everywhere. In shops, at our homes or even in the street,” says a young Burundian who was briefly detained before being released because he has papers authorizing him to settle and live on the Zambian soil. He said he learned of the arrest of several other Burundians on December 27.

“Many of my friends have been arrested. We learned that more than 150 Burundians have been arrested,” a young Burundian father who has been living in Lusaka for several years told SOS Médias Burundi.

According to him, people detained by the Zambian immigration police are waiting for two solutions : to pay fines before being sent back to refugee camps and to be sent back to the border with Tanzania for irregular immigrants. But the situation will get complicated for people who do not have money to pay for transportation costs, he said.

“They will be sent to prisons in Tanzania until they find money. After finding some, they will be taken to the Mugina border (between Makamba province – southern Burundi and Kigoma region – northwestern Tanzania). This is what is normally done,” he clarified.

The Burundian NGO ONLCT Où Est Ton Frère that campaigns against human trafficking, announced that it has listed 156 Burundians who were arrested in Lusaka, just for the night of December 27. It is asking the Burundian government to negotiate the repatriation of these people detained by the Zambian police in particular. Its representative, Prime Mbarubukeye announced that more and more young Burundians are leaving for countries like Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique or Malawi following the extreme poverty that is plaguing the small nation in East Africa, a situation aggravated by unemployment. The departures mainly concern young people. Mr. Mbarubukeye calls on Burundian authorities to “organize a symposium of youth next year” in order to find a solution to the illegal migratory flows that have been observed in recent times.

In most cases, especially in southern African countries, Burundian embassies have often been accused of “not intervening” in the event of abusive arrests of nationals of the small East African nation.

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Undocumented immigrants including Burundian nationals being expelled by Zambian services, Dr