Dwindling numbers of refugees opting for repatriation

An increasing number of Burundian refugees in camps in western Tanzania are "dropping out" of the repatriation process, despite having registered for it with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). A UNHCR spokeswoman, Ivana Unluova, told IRIN on Monday that "bigger and bigger numbers are dropping out", which, she said, might be due to the volatile security situation in Burundi. "The numbers are registered, but they are not turning up for the returning convoys." Last week, only one person had turned up for repatriation from a UNHCR camp in Kasulu, something which rendered the whole process "very uneconomical", she added. Meanwhile, the governments of Burundi and Tanzania have said they will send a delegation to UNHCR headquarters in Geneva to petition for allowing repatriation to all areas in Burundi. Currently, the UN agency only facilitates repatriation to the northern provinces, which are deemed relatively secure. "There has been no meeting [of minds] between the governments of Burundi and Tanzania and UNHCR on this issue," said Unluova. "The governments claim that the security situation in the south is not as serious as UNHCR says, and that UNHCR should respect the will of the refugees to return to the southern provinces." Tanzanian Minister for Home Affairs Mohammed Seif Khatib said last week that when the UNHCR had expressed concern over security, both governments had reiterated that the issue of internal security was the "prerogative of the governments" themselves, the Tanzanian-based Guardian newspaper reported. Unluova confirmed that since March, representatives from both governments had been stating that all Burundian refugees in the Tanzanian camps should be repatriated within six months. "But we don't know when that six months is supposed to start from," she said. "We are fairly confident that they are using it in a vague manner deliberately." She said that at a recent tripartite meeting, a request had been made to the UN for funding to allow both governments to conduct the repatriation themselves. The Guardian reported that Khatib and the Burundi minister in charge of resettlement of internally displaced persons and refugees, Francoise Ngendahayo, had "vowed that the two governments would carry out the repatriation exercise of Burundian refugees on their own if need be". "But that is not the way we operate," Unluova said. "UNHCR's official position on this has put a strain on the relationship," she added. To date, about 80,000 refugees have registered for repatriation, and over 16,000 have gone home.