IOM transfers 205 refugees for resettlement

A charter flight from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on Thursday flew 205 Congolese and Burundian refugees from Mwanza, Tanzania, to Canada, where they are to be resettled. Canadian immigration officers in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in March this year interviewed and approved some 400 Burundian and Congolese refugees from the camps in western Tanzania for resettlement to Canada. There are approximately 350,000 refugees in 11 camps along Tanzania’s western border.

UNHCR and IOM worked together to facilitate post-departure processing and departure, according to an IOM press release. Three of the agency’s staff coordinated medical screenings in Kigoma, while the agency’s Nairobi staff carried out cultural orientation courses in French and/or Kiswahili in the refugees’ respective camps. The vast majority of these refugees were French speakers, who would be resettled in the French-speaking province of Quebec, IOM added.