Government allocates site for refugees

The Tanzanian government has agreed to allocate UNHCR another refugee site for emergencies, in the event that a new camp, Karago, in Kigoma region, reaches its maximum capacity of 40,000 people. By 18 January, the population of the camp had reached 23,152. “The rate of influx of the [mostly Burundi] refugees into the area from December, when it was launched, to the early part of the year was about 1,000 a day,” UNHCR spokesman Vincent Parker told IRIN on Friday. “Looking at the number already in the camp, we realised that if the trend continued, the camp would be filled to capacity in another 17 days.” He said the government agreed to make available a new site at Musuhura in Ngara district. The site was once host to some 80,000 Rwandese refugees between 1994-1996, but was closed in 1996 because the refugees had returned home.