Gov’t to expel asylum seekers

The Burundian government will expel all Rwandan asylum seekers who fail to meet conditions for their acceptance as refugees, Interior Minister Evariste Ndayishimiye said on Monday in the capital, Bujumbura. Burundi's northern provinces currently host at least 19,000 Rwandan asylum seekers. They are grouped at Musasa and Songore transit sites in Ngozi Province. Ndayishimiye told a news conference that a commission - made up officials from Burundi, Rwanda and the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) - had from December 2005 analysed requests for asylum from 1,249 Rwandans. The commission found that only 52 people, or 4.6 percent of the applicants, were eligible for refugee status. Ndayishimiye said that based on the commission's data, the Burundian government would transfer those eligible for refugee status to a camp to be built in Giharo commune in the eastern province of Rutana. Those who were ineligible would be sent back to Rwanda in the coming days. Under international principles, an asylum seeker who fails to meet the requirements for refugee status is asked to return home and has no right to stay in the host country, he said. Ndayishimiye did not specify when the expulsions would begin. “[The] Burundi government will organise the repatriation of these asylum seekers to their country in collaboration with the UNHCR and Rwanda government," he said. "We will ask them to return home. If they do not do it willingly, they will be sent to the frontier, as they will be considered foreigners [who have] illegally entered the country." The asylum seekers would have the right to appeal to a commission, Ndayishimiye said. The membership of the commission in charge of identifying the status of the asylum seekers would be increased to speed up the identification process. The Rwandans started arriving in Burundi in April 2005 - mainly from the province of Butare. They said they were fleeing prosecution under Rwanda's traditional justice system known as gacaca, which was established to expedite trials for thousands of people alleged to have been involved in the country's 1994 genocide. However, Ndayishimiye said some of the asylum seekers had fled food shortages in the country while others had fled because of insecurity.