Human Rights in Tanzania - Refugees and Asylum-seekers

Refugees and Asylum-seekers

For more than four decades, the United Republic of Tanzania has been an asylum country, hosting one of the most vast refugee populations in all of Africa. Asylum Access Tanzania (AATZ) legally assists the country’s population of refugees making Tanzania a critical sanctuary for fleeing refugees. “More than 36,000 Burundian refugees in Mtabila refugee camp in western Tanzania were at risk of forcible return. Many of the refugees had their homes set on fire or were threatened with arson by individuals acting under instructions of Tanzanian authorities.” Although there was evidence of “forcible returns”, authorities enforced nonviolence claiming the return process was “voluntary as part of a tripartite agreement between the governments of Tanzania and Burundi and the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.” At the announcement of the refugee camp termination, very few refugees enlisted for the voluntary deportation. Upon return to the homeland, there were not any procedures in place to evaluate any individual claims of terror of persecution by refugees and asylum-seekers.