Team decries insecurity in refugee camps

An assessment team that toured Burundian refugee camps in western Tanzania in late May has recommended that communal markets around the camps be reopened to stem the rising insecurity.

The team, comprising officials from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), also recommended that the refugees' access to arable land should be increased.

The team toured the three camps in Kibondo District between 27 and 30 May, where 267,850 Burundians live as refugees.

It found that a UN World Food Programme (WFP) food reduction of 50 percent in January and 28 percent in May had led to increased violence and robbery in and outside the camps.

The Tanzanian government closed communal markets around the camps in efforts to curb insecurity. However, the Kibondo district commissioner had indicated that the markets could be reopened if security improved.

Among other recommendations, the team said Burundian authorities, the UN and implementing partners should work out a plan for the reinsertion and rehabilitation of the refugees.

The UNHCR offices in Burundi and Tanzania should strengthen their cooperation and meet regularly to coordinate action plans, the team suggested.

A UNHCR monitoring system should be developed to trace returning refugees and a list compiled of Burundian provinces where the agency facilitates repatriation.

The team said the key reasons given by refugees returning to Burundi were reduced food rations, Tanzanian restrictions on their economic activities and their perception of the camps as a prison.

Those not willing to return to Burundi gave lack of military reform, chronic insecurity and possible relocation in internally displaced people's sites as some of the reasons for their reluctance to go back.

The refugees told the team that efforts that could be made to improve their situation included the reopening of the communal markets, greater access to arable land, freedom of movement and trade within the camps, increased vocational opportunities and financial support for their children's secondary school education.