Refugee flow “very worrying” - UNHCR

The current influx of Burundi refugees into Tanzania - in a situation where almost half the places in the last refugee site available are rapidly being filled - was very worrying, particularly if the refugees continued to arrive at the same rate as over the past few weeks,” UNHCR stated on Monday. Almost 1,000 refugees a day were now entering Tanzania from eastern communes of Burundi. Within three weeks of its official opening on 23 December, the new Karago refugee camp in Kibondo district had reached almost half its 45,000 to 50,000 capacity, the refugee agency stated in a briefing paper. Karago, established after all empty plots in Nduta and Mtendeli were occupied, was the last site allocated for refugees by the Tanzanian government, and “there are no additional sites, even for contingencies,” UNHCR stated. “Options for the future settlement of newly-arriving Burundian refugees in Tanzania are very few and very costly,” it added. The overall refugee figure for Tanzania at the beginning of 2000 was approximately 424,300 refugees.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sodako Ogata arrived in Tanzania on Sunday to begin a four-day visit, part of a 10-day, three-nation fact-finding visit to some of the major refugee situations in the Great Lakes region and Southern Africa, a UNHCR statement said. While in Tanzania, Ogata is scheduled to meet senior government officials in Dar es Salaam and visit Karago refugee camp.