Burundi Situation Not Conducive for Refugee Return - UNHCR

Nairobi — UNHCR says the best solution for refugees is to see them return to their home countries and restart their lives, "but this [repatriation] cannot take place if the conditions in their home countries are uncertain and insecure", UNHCR's external relations officer in Dar es Salaam, Ivana Unluova stated on Tuesday. "In the case of Burundi, we continue receiving refugees from the country who give accounts of fighting, attacks and insecurity," she told IRIN. "We cannot send people to this kind of situation. At the moment the condition on the ground is just not conducive for mass scale repatriation in Burundi and to some extent in the DRC," she noted. She said the agency had the mechanism for repatriation in place and was prepared, "but it has to be a durable and a one time movement".

Last week, Tanzania's President Benjamin Mkapa, ordered the repatriation of Burundi refugees residing in Tanzania "at all costs", the 'EastAfrican' newspaper said. Mkapa had told the visiting UN Security Council mission in Dar es Salaam that he was "fed up of perennial accusations that his country was harbouring rebels from Burundi". "My people are tired. I am of the opinion that once these refugees leave we will be able to live in peace and continue with our development activities," he said. On 8 May, the country's Home Affairs Minister Mohammed Khatib, his Burundian counterpart Pascal Nkruzinza and the UNHCR representative in Tanzania, Marjon Kamara, signed a tripartite agreement on the voluntary repatriation of Burundian refugees in Tanzania.

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