An agreement has been reached on the timeframe for Burundian refugees living in Tanzania to return home. The UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR), together with Tanzania and Burundi, say they will “implement a plan” for the dates of “7 September to 31 December 2017” for the “voluntary repatriation... of all Burundian refugees who wish to return to their country of origin.” In the same statement, the three parties state that 12,000 Burundian refugees have registered to return home voluntarily That’s out of a total number of 256,850. The announcement comes a matter of months after the UNHCR expressed concern over “the unstable situation in Burundi”. Tanzania UNCHR representative Chansa Kapaya has since said: “This [voluntary] return should be in safety and in dignity. And by safety we mean legal, physical and material safety.” Food security and other basic needs will be crucial for those who return to the country they left some time ago. Agencies
