Nduta (Tanzania) : manhunt for asylum seekers

On January 15, 2025, an operation was conducted in the Nduta refugee camp in Tanzania, specifically targeting Burundian asylum seekers. The manhunt is being conducted by police and civil guards.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The number of asylum seekers who were arrested is not yet known. However, refugees who witnessed the operation speak of around ten, with several others having hidden in different villages.

Among the people targeted are asylum seekers whose repeated requests have never been granted and former refugees who, after returning to Burundi, have taken the path of exile again.

The operation, which began in zone IV of the camp, targets not only Burundian asylum seekers, but also refugees who host them.

Those who are caught fear being repatriated to Burundi while they had hoped to gain refugee status.

These hunted people demand to be heard and protected, and cite reasons of insecurity in Burundi.

Most of the time, people arrested in different refugee camps are gathered in the town center of the Kigoma region in northwestern Tanzania where two sites hosting Burundians are set up. Those arrested are then extradited to their country of origin.

They then urge the UNHCR not to watch helplessly as they harassed each other, even though they have confided in this UN agency to request international protection.

Nduta has more than 58,000 Burundian refugees. Its occupants fled the 2015 crisis following another controversial term of the late President Pierre Nkurunziza the same year, for the most part.

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Several Burundian refugees including children in a meeting with Tanzanian authorities at the Nduta camp in Tanzania (SOS Médias Burundi)