Rights body says refugees under “threat”

The human rights organisation Amnesty International said that the lives, security and dignity of thousands of refugees in the Great Lakes region were “once again under threat” as the standards of refugee protection in Tanzania had dropped dramatically since late 1999. In a report, Amnesty said scores of Burundian and Rwandan refugees had been forcibly returned to their countries of origin in violation of both Tanzanian and international refugee laws. “The government of Tanzania has also failed to take sufficient action to protect women refugees from human rights abuses,” it said.

The organisation said that over 80 Rwandan and 580 Burundian refugees were known to have been forcibly returned to their countries of origin from Tanzania since February. “People who were not able to produce identity cards or certificates of Tanzanian naturalisation have been arrested, taken into custody and returned to their countries of origin,” the report said. The Burundian returnees were taken to Muyinga province in northeastern Burundi, while the Rwandans went to Kibungo prefecture in eastern Rwanda.