Tanzania: Police hold 42 illegal immigrants in Rukwa

BY CORRESPONDENT.

Police in Rukwa have arrested 42 persons suspected to be illegal immigrants from Burundi, 32 of them are children, 13 girls, 19 boys.

Rukwa Regional Police Commander Jacob Mwaruanda reported the arrest to have occurred late Sunday night when, following a tip, police raided a Guest house in the Chanji village of Sumbawanga district. 

The six men and four women had with them the said children but it is yet to be confirmed as to what relations they all have with each other but it is safe to assume that these were at least three or four families seeking greener pastures from their war torn Nation.

What was made clear is the route they used to enter the country deduced however as explained by the Regional Police Commander, “they came through Manyovu in Kigoma that borders the Burundian town of Mkamba  with Tanzania. They were running from hunger… Tanzania was only a stopover… they were going to Malawi….”

In August 2011 the Government suspended the local integration of some 162,000 Burundians, pending further internal consultations.

A final directive on the issue from the Government is still awaited. 

While the number of individuals arriving in mixed-migration flows has increased sharply, fewer of them than before are being given asylum as the authorities are reluctant to process new asylum applications.

In fact, the government has clearly indicated that naturalization is not possible for Burundian refugees who arrived in the 1990s or later.

As it is, 22,000 Burundians of the "1972 group" live in villages in the Kigoma region. 

Nonetheless, the Government has declared that it is committed to reviewing its refugee policy and related legislation, ratifying the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa.

Tanzania has been an asylum country for more than four decades, during which time it has hosted one of the largest refugee populations in Africa. 

North West parts of the country hold some of the largest refugee and immigrant populations anywhere.

Take Mtabila camp for instance, it has been home to more than 40,000 Burundians but it was, in line with the decision of the Tripartite Commission comprising the Governments of Burundi, Tanzania and UNHCR, closed on 31 December 2012.

The decision to close the camp follows a complex year-long interview and appeal process conducted by UNHCR and the Tanzanian Government, as a consequence of which approximately 37,500 Burundians were deemed not to require international protection any longer. 

Another 2,700 Burundians who still require international protection have been relocated to neighbouring Nyarugusu camp to await an alternative durable solution. The vast majority of the 66,000 refugees (63,000 of them Congolese) in that camp, which is now the only remaining refugee camp, can neither work nor move outside the camp. 

This compels UNHCR, as it has posted on their website, to provide a full set of services to them because the prospects for local integration are not only slim but all together inexistent. 

Now couple that with the deteriorating situation in the DRC and it becomes clear, the nation must brace itself and increase resettlement opportunities for refugees.

 
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN (06/03/2013): http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=51990