BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Returnees from Tanzania increase dramatically

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NAIROBI, 15 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, expects in August at least a six-fold increase in the number of Burundian refugees returning home compared to June, UNHCR spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis said on Friday.

"We are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of Burundian refugees returning home from camps in Tanzania," she said at a news briefing in Geneva, Switzerland.

She said 20,000 refugees were expected in August, up from the 3,116 in June. The draw has been progress made in returning the country to constitutional rule.

"The refugees tell us that orderly communal elections at the end of June – nearly the last step in a long transition to peace and democracy – gave them the confidence to return home after up to nine years in exile," she said.

In June and July, she said, from 600 to 800 refugees were returning each week to the south of their country. Last week, she added, the agency had helped at least 3,600 from Tanzania and 600 from Rwanda return home to these areas.

UNHCR, she said, had increased the number of convoys out of Ngara, Kasulu and Kibondo camps in western Tanzania for Burundi; running three convoys a week from Ngara and two a week from each of the other two camps. She said whereas UNHCR helped refugees wanting to go home voluntarily, it was not actively promoting returns.

Refugees get transportation from the Tanzanian camps back to their home villages in Burundi, she said. Once back, they are given goods to help them restart their life including a three-month supply of food, as well as plastic sheeting, mats, blankets, cloth, sanitary materials, kitchen sets, jerry cans, soap and a hoe, since most of them are farmers.

"We are also building schools and providing roofing materials for individual returnee houses, and funding other projects to help the local community absorb the returning refugees," she said.

Since 2002, more than 250,000 Burundian refugees have returned home, mainly from Tanzania, she said. Another 238,000 of them are still in Tanzanian camps, she added, and 198,000 more living in settlements in the west of the country.

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