Geza Ulole
Platinum Member
- Oct 31, 2009
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14th September 13
Dar refutes UN reports on refugees
The Guardian Reporter
The government has strongly refuted reports that it has forcefully repatriated around 25,000 refugees over the past one month.
A statement issued by Communication and Information Officer of the Ministry for Home Affairs Issac Nantanga says that international media outlets, including Deustche Welle Swahili Service on Thursday broadcast reports quoting a UN agency claiming that the government had, over the past one month, repatriated by force 25,000 refugees from Burundi.
Though the ministrys spokesman did not identify the UN agency that raised the claims, news published in the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) website on Thursday cited the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) as the source of the story.
The government of Tanzania would like to inform the international community that such claims are utterly false and are a mere fabrication, the statement from the ministry read in part.
According to the press statement, such claims aimed at tarnishing the countrys good image before the international community, considering the fact that it had always been a refuge to thousands of refugees from several countries, especially in Great Lake Region.
The government stated that not a single refugee had been repatriated to Burundi over that period, clarifying that December last year was the last time some 34,000 Burundi refugees were voluntarily sent home in a joint operation between Tanzania and Burundi governments and the UNHCR. The refugees were from the Mtabila Camp in Kigoma.
The statement also said Tanzania doesnt intend, or plan, to forcefully repatriate any refugees, and that there are still thousands of refugees at various refugee camps in the country.
Whenever an exercise of repatriation is conducted it normally involves the UN agency, the Tanzania government and the government of a country from which the refugees came, the statement read in part.
Nantanga gave figures of refugees currently staying in Tanzania; 64,172 Congolese refugees at Nyarugusu camp in Kasulu, Kigoma region; and 175,473 Burundi refugees at Mishamo and Katumba in Mpanda district, Katavi region.
He also cited 2,128 Somali refugees resettled at Chogo in Handeni district, Tanga region while 22,227 refugees, whose nationalities the statement didnt identify, were in Kasulu and Kigoma Rural districts in Kigoma region. In total Tanzania is still home to 264,000 refugees.
The UNHCR -- Tanzania office -- has contacted its counterparts in Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo and have confirmed that there is not a single refugee who has been repatriated to these countries over the past one month.
it is evident that the stories carried by the international media outlets are false they aim at waging a mudslinging campaign against the government, the statement said.
The exercise being conducted currently of repatriating illegal immigrants should not be misunderstood because it does not target refugees, Nantanga added.
Up to September 4, 2013 over 27,000 illegal immigrants had been repatriated to their respective home countries, most of whom were illegally staying in Kagera, Kigoma and Rukwa regions.
THE GUARDIAN
Dar refutes UN reports on refugees
