Advocate Anne Edgerton and Mission Associate Heather Courtney are conducting an assessment mission on the prospects for repatriating Burundian refugees from camps in Tanzania. They will start by visiting Burundi, both the capital Bujumbura and Muyinga Province close to the Tanzanian border, in order to assess in-country conditions, including security and economic conditions for recently repatriated refugees. Interviews with relief, human rights, and government agencies in Bujumbura, as well as with recent Burundian returnees in the transit camp and other areas of Muyinga Province, will help to ascertain the reasons refugees are currently repatriating, and the current security and humanitarian climate in Burundi.

Anne and Heather will then visit the refugee camps in Ngara, Kibondo and Kasulu in western Tanzania and Dar es Salaam, the capital, to assess the conditions in the camps and speak with Tanzanian government officials.

RI’s findings on this mission will be shared with the UN High Commission for Refugees and the United States government as their support and facilitation are indispensable for a safe return of Burundians to their homeland. RI is concerned that the prevailing conditions of civil conflict and unresolved issues related to access to land at the community level are not conducive to large-scale return from Tanzania at this time.