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Joint delegation to seek repatriation of Burundian refugees

[Tanzania] Burundi refugee loads bicycle onto UNHCR truck before being repatriated. IRIN
Réfugiés burundais chargeant leurs bagages avant rapatriement
    NAIROBI

    Burundi and Tanzania announced on Tuesday that they would send a delegation to Geneva to ask the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to facilitate the repatriation of all Burundian refugees now in Tanzanian.

    The announcement was made at a news conference after the end of the fourth tripartite meeting in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, between Burundi, Tanzania and the office of the UNHCR on the refugee repatriation issue.

    Close to 500,000 Burundian refugees are camped in Tanzania, thousands of who have been returning home on their own or under UNHCR-sponsored operations. However, the UNHCR position is to facilitate repatriations only to safe areas, while extending "limited assistance" to refugees insisting on going elsewhere in Burundi.

    Under its programme of facilitated repatriation, UNHCR registers refugees, provides them with going-home packages, money and drugs, and organises their transport. The operations have been directed at Burundians returning to the north of the country, as opposed to the east and south, where fighting between Hutu rebels and government troops continue.

    Burundi was represented at the one-day tripartite meeting by its minister in charge of resettlement of internally displaced persons and refugees, Francoise Ngendahayo, and Tanzania by its interior minister, Mohamed Khatib. Stefano Severe, the UNHCR delegate to Burundi, represented the agency.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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