U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 1997 - Tanzania

Tanzania hosted some 335,000 refugees at the end of 1996: approximately 240,000 from Burundi, an estimated 50,000 from Rwanda, about 40,000 from Zaire, and about 5,000 from various other countries. In addition, some 100,000 Burundians who fled to Tanzania in previous decades continued to live there. USCR no longer classifies them as refugees needing protection or assistance. Tanzania's policies toward refugees during 1996 were controversial and inconsistent. Tanzanian authorities expelled large numbers of Rwandan and Burundian refugees. Government officials denied access to thousands of refugees seeking to enter from Burundi. Despite these restrictive actions, about 180,000 new Burundian and Zairian refugees were able to enter Tanzania. Pre-1996 Events Tanzania's reputation as a country generous to refugees was sorely tested when more than a half-million Rwandan refugees poured into Tanzania in mid1994. The influx vastly outnumbered local citizens. An additional complication was that exiled Rwandan leaders, who committed genocide in Rwanda in 1994, used the refugee camps in Tanzania to train their militia and intimidate the refugee population, according to relief workers. Tanzanian police struggled to patrol the camps. Additional Rwandan and Burundian refugees entered Tanzania in 1995. Burundians were fleeing ethnic massacres and a widening civil war. Tanzanian authorities abruptly closed their border with Burundi in March 1995 and placed restrictions on the work of relief groups in border areas. International observers charged that Tanzanian troops forcibly expelled hundreds of Burundian refugees and turned back thousands of potential refugees at the border, at times by firing guns. Despite the border closure, some 40,000 new Burundian refugees entered Tanzania during 1995 and settled into refugee camps. New Arrivals in 1996 Tanzania's border with Burundi remained officially closed during 1996. However, government authorities allowed entry to tens of thousands of new refugees for humanitarian reasons. In January, UNHCR and other international relief agencies were operating under government restrictions that allowed them only limited access to areas along the Tanzania-Burundi border. The government imposed the restrictions in 1995 to discourage new refugee arrivals. Officials subsequently eased the restrictions. The government's ambiguous policy toward new refugees was exemplified by its response in January to more than 30,000 Rwandan refugees who found Burundi too dangerous for asylum and sought to enter Tanzania. Tanzanian authorities initially denied them entry at the border. Within days, however, authorities reversed their policy and allowed most – but not all – of the refugees to enter and settle into camps. In February, Tanzanian border officials allowed new refugees from Burundi to enter Tanzania even though about 150 Burundian refugees already in Tanzania were being expelled, according to UNHCR. The government ignored appeals by UNHCR to open the border officially. An estimated 4,000 Burundian refugees arrived in Tanzania during May-June and were "discreetly" granted asylum despite the closed border, according to a UNHCR report. In a June incident, however, about 7,000 other Burundians were denied entry into Tanzania. UNHCR reported that the 7,000 "exhausted and frightened" refugees were blocked at the border in "a dramatic departure from Tanzania's flexible policy" of allowing new arrivals across the officially "closed" border. During the first half of 1996, approximately 40,000 Burundian and Rwandan refugees managed to enter Tanzania despite the restrictions. The influx of refugees from Burundi increased dramatically in the last half of the year, as that country's political and ethnic turmoil worsened. Large numbers of refugees also arrived from Zaire as a civil war erupted there. Up to 140,000 Burundians and 30,000 Zairians fled to Tanzania in the last half of 1996, including some 90,000 arrivals in November alone. Thousands of Zairian and Burundian refugees traversed Lake Tanganyika by boat to reach Tanzania. An estimated 500 or more Burundian refugees per day were fleeing to Tanzania as the year ended. Violence among Burundian refugees in December left 10 dead. Tanzanian officials responded by arresting 200 to 300 Burundian and Zairian refugees in late December, and ordered some of them expelled. Conditions Tanzania hosted an estimated 730,000 refugees from Rwanda, Burundi, and Zaire in early December, creating severe logistical and environmental challenges. Most refugees lived in the relatively remote northwest corner of Tanzania. Camps were located in three general areas. Nearly a half-million refugees occupied some eight sites in the Ngara region much of the year. The largest Ngara camp, Benaco, contained some 160,000 residents. Another Ngara camp, Lumasi, totalled an estimated 110,000 persons. A second region, Karagwe, hosted some 120,000 refugees at five primary sites. The third refugee area, Kigoma, hosted up to 180,000 refugees by December, reflecting a six-fold increase during the year. Roads in many refugee areas were poor, particularly during rainy season. Water shortages plagued several camps. Relief workers laid special pipelines and drilled additional boreholes to meet the water needs of the existing refugee population and accommodate new arrivals. "If refugees remain there, all the region will become desert," Tanzania's foreign minister asserted. Refugees collected 600 tons of firewood each day for cooking and other household needs, according to a UNHCR estimate. Foraging for firewood in isolated areas exposed refugee women and girls to rapes, beatings, and thefts. Officials sought to restrict refugees from foraging more than four kilometers beyond camp boundaries. The government urged UNHCR to supply firewood from other areas in order to minimize deforestation near refugee sites. Relations between the refugee population and local Tanzanians were often strained. Local officials in one area appealed for $23 million to repair damage to the environment and infrastructure caused by the large refugee population. Tanzanians in another district requested more police protection against alleged banditry by refugees. Authorities in one district launched a crackdown against refugees living outside the confines of designated areas. Tanzanian soldiers patrolling some refugee centers routinely abused refugee families and looted their belongings, according to one study. Some relief workers reported that they received threats to their own security after camp leaders allegedly circulated rumors that relief workers were spies. The health of the refugee population was generally acceptable, with some exceptions. A survey in early 1996 at one large camp found 50 percent malnutrition among children under age 5. A camp housing large numbers of new arrivals from Burundi measured a malnutrition rate of nearly 20 percent among children late in the year. Many camps received weekly food distributions. Refugees in the massive Benaco camp in the Ngara region reportedly farmed up to 6,000 hectares of land. Tens of thousands of refugee children attended camp primary schools. About 5,000 children who became separated from their parents during their flight to asylum lived with relatives in the camps, UNHCR reported. Nearly 800 unaccompanied minors became reunited with parents or other close family members during 1994-96, according to UNHCR. Rwandan Repatriation The massive repatriation of nearly a half-million Rwandan refugees in December resulted from an extraordinary and controversial sequence of events. Efforts by UNHCR and the Tanzanian government to promote voluntary repatriation by Rwandan refugees were generally ineffective during the first 11 months of the year. Many refugees were fearful of returning to Rwanda, based on both real and exaggerated reports of the situation there. Rwandans who did wish to repatriate were often prevented from doing so by refugee leaders in the camps, who had political reasons for blocking a massive repatriation. "The nature of intimidation from anti-repatriation elements within the refugee camps has changed," UNHCR reported early in the year. "Previous intimidation [against repatriation] was overt and violent.... Now...leaders as well as other refugees are quietly circulating rumors" about the dangers of returning to Rwanda. Several thousand Rwandans chose to repatriate after the Rwandan prime minister and other high officials visited their camps in February to invite them home. The repatriation flow virtually ceased soon afterward, however. UNHCR mounted a mass information campaign to promote voluntary repatriation. The information campaign included a video by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter that accentuated the relative safety of Rwanda. Local radio transmitted similar messages. The overwhelming majority of refugees either disbelieved the messages or were prevented from repatriating by their own leaders. A mere 2 percent of the refugees returned to Rwanda during the first 11 months of the year. The relatively safe repatriation of some 500,000 Rwandan refugees from Zaire in mid-November convinced Tanzanian officials that Rwandans no longer needed asylum in Tanzania. The government announced that refugees must close their private businesses in the refugee camps. On December 5, the government proclaimed that "all Rwandese refugees can now return to their country in safety," and set a year-end deadline for the departure of all Rwandans. UNHCR concurred with the government's statement but criticized the government for failing to give refugees an option to remain in Tanzania. UNHCR redoubled its efforts to stimulate voluntary repatriation with more radio messages, leaflets printed in the refugees' language of Kinyarwanda, and loudspeaker broadcasts in the camps. About 5,000 refugees repatriated in the first 12 days of December. UNHCR workers on the ground reported that refugee leaders were actively seeking to deter the refugees from leaving by undertaking door-to-door visits to refugee households in the camps. Hundreds of thousands of refugees suddenly departed several camps on December 12 and marched deeper into Tanzania, away from the Rwanda border, in an apparent effort to foil the repatriation campaign. Relief workers on the scene reported that many individual refugees had no clear idea where they were going. UNHCR officials in Tanzania said the sudden anti-repatriation exodus from the camps was "pure manipulation" by refugee leaders. Tanzanian security forces intercepted the refugees two days later and blocked their movement deeper into Tanzania. The refugees reversed direction and headed back to their camps. Tanzanian authorities declared the camps closed and required the refugees to return to Rwanda. Tanzanian security personnel lined the roads to enforce the expulsion and prevent refugee leaders from reversing the repatriation flow. Foreign observers offered conflicting accounts of the conduct of Tanzanian soldiers and police toward the refugees. UNHCR said that it received no reports of serious human rights abuses in the first days of the repatriation. UNHCR indicated, however, that some Tanzanian security personnel committed abuses in the final week of the expulsion. Other observers charged that soldiers and police committed numerous rapes and beatings, and used tear gas to push refugees toward the border. A UN worker accused police of burning a local church in order to expel Rwandan refugees sheltered there. At least one Tanzanian police officer was arrested for murdering a refugee. As many as 15,000 refugees per hour returned to Rwanda at the peak of the repatriation. An estimated 100,000 persons repatriated in a single day, December 16. Some 320,000 refugees repatriated by December 22, and an estimated 470,000 by year's end. Many refugees traveled 60 miles or more on foot to reach the border. The coercive repatriation of the refugees drew condemnation from some human rights organizations, who charged that the tactics violated international refugee law. "UNHCR has shamefully abandoned its responsibility to protect refugees," and Tanzanian officials placed "a blot on their traditionally good record in respect of refugee rights," Human Rights Watch/Africa stated. UNHCR and other analysts argued that the aggressive repatriation tactics were required to break the grip of extremist leaders who allegedly held many refugees in the camps against their will. UNHCR stated that "the situation in Rwanda is conducive to return." Approximately 50,000 Rwandans refused to repatriate and remained in Tanzania at year's end. Many of them reportedly fled to other areas of Tanzania or posed as Burundian refugees. Tanzanian officials indicated that Rwandans who remained in Tanzania must congregate at one designated camp pending a determination of their official status. Officials warned that they would expel Rwandan refugees found outside the designated camp.