Tanzania pledges to continue providing asylum to refugees

DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 11 — The government of Tanzania on Wednesday
affirmed its commitment to continue providing asylum and protection to
refugees.

Mwigulu Nchemba, the east African nation’s Minister for Home Affairs, said
the country’s commitment towards the protection of refugees was in line
with the willingness by international community to share the burden and
responsibility for hosting and supporting the refugees. The minister was
opening a high level dialogue between the government of Tanzania and the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the commercial
capital Dar es Salaam. The dialogue was aimed at addressing challenges
facing the country in hosting large numbers of refugees, and suggesting the
way forward. “We now need to translate these commitments into effective
support to host governments and communities,”said Nchemba.

Nchemba said serving refugees was an international obligation that needed
collaboration from multiple stakeholders in sharing the burden. “As a
country that is renowned for her generosity and hospitality to hosting
hundreds of thousands refugees for over five decades, Tanzania also
welcomes the New York Declaration and its subsequent Comprehensive Refugee
Response Framework (CRRF),” he said. He said Tanzania was committed and
ready to co-operate with all stakeholders to ensure full implementation and
realization of the CRRF whose secretariat of work in Tanzania was
officially launched on June 2, this year.

A fortnight ago, Tanzanian authorities said more than 5,000 Burundian
refugees staying in camps in western Tanzania have volunteered to return
home following a recent appeal by President John Magufuli to them to return
home and help build their country. Emmanuel Maganga, the Kigoma Regional
Commissioner, said 5,327 Burundian refugees from Nduta, Nyarugusu and
Mtendeli refugee camps have volunteered to go home, adding that 4,935 of
these were from Nduta, 364 from Nyarugusu and 28 from Mtendeli. Currently,
he told Xinhua in a telephone interview, Nduta sheltered 124,914 Burundian
refugees, Nyarugusu 75,761 refugees and Mtendeli 49,839 refugees.

On July 20, President Magufuli called on the Burundian refugees now in the
country to return home voluntarily and help build their country, asserting
that now there was security in the tiny central African country. Magufuli’s
remarks were in support of an earlier plea by Burundian president Pierre
Nkurunziza, who had called on his fellow countrymen to go back home and
help rebuild their country because the “war is over.” Magufuli also took a
swipe at international humanitarian bodies for trying to convince refugees
not to return to their home countries because of continued insecurity, just
so they can continue receiving aid from donors.The president also directed
the Ministry of Home Affairs not to grant citizenship to any more Burundian
refugees coming into Tanzania.

In 2014, Tanzania announced that it was in the process of granting
citizenship to 162,000 Burundian refugees who had fled their country in
1972.In June this year, the UN refugee agency said Tanzania remained the
largest host of Burundian refugees. Tanzania is currently home to more than
315,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, mainly from Burundi and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo. They are hosted in three refugee camps of Nyarugusu,
Nduta, and Mtendeli, which face severe pressure.-XINHUA