“No serious problems” with Zanzibari returnees

The repatriation of 667 Zanzibari refugees, who fled political violence on the islands of Unguja and Pemba in late January, was completed on 18 May without any significant difficulty, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski stated on Tuesday.

The refugees, many of them supporters of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) from the island of Pemba, had been staying in a makeshift camp in Shimoni, a small fishing town on the Kenyan coast, south of Mombasa port, he said.

These refugees were among a group of more than 2,000 Zanzibaris who fled a violent clampdown on the CUF on the islands, as the party protested against what it considered fraudulent elections in October last year. Amnesty International reported in early March that its preliminary investigation had confirmed torture, including rape and beatings, as well as indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force against civilians by security forces.

Over 500 of the refugees were transferred from Shimoni to refugee camps in Dadaab, northeastern Kenya, and several hundred others found shelter with friends and relatives on the Kenyan coast, which is just 40 km by sea from Zanzibar. UNHCR expects many of these to join the repatriation movement in the coming weeks.

The government of Tanzania has given assurances that those refugees who return voluntarily to Pemba will not be prosecuted as a group for their involvement in the January demonstrations, the refugee agency said on Tuesday.

Janowski said the agency’s protection staff in Zanzibar were monitoring the return process, and would also be working with partner agencies such as UNICEF to ensure that the refugee children were readmitted to schools. Refugee agency staff were “working closely with the government, the opposition Civic United Front and returnee families, focusing on vulnerable groups”, he said.

The refugee agency said it would monitor the treatment of those accused of offences during the January demonstrations to ensure they received due process under the law.

“No serious problems have been reported so far,” Janowski said. “We expect to maintain a monitoring presence in Pemba and Zanzibar for the coming weeks.”