Draft:Status of homeless and refugee in Tanzania

Non refoulement principle in Tanzania

As discussed in the second chapter of this study, the concept of non-refoulement is considered to be the large portion forming the necessary protection in the international human rights law, international refugee law, international humanitarian law and also in customary international law. It is the principle which is against the actions of the states that involves removing or sending back the individuals from their jurisdiction or frontiers to other territories where they had fled for the purpose of protecting their freedom or life at large which would be in severe harm/endangered.

Refugee Status Determination in Tanzania: Reality on the Ground

In Tanzania, it the requirement of the law that any person who enters the country to seek asylum, he or she must within seven days present him/herself to an authorized officer or a village executive officer or a justice of peace and ask or apply to be recognized as a refuge. The applications are then sent to the Director of the Refugee Services (DRS) who after receiving them convenes the National Eligibility Committee for the purpose of making an evaluation regarding to who qualifies to be granted the refugee status and who doesn’t qualify to be granted the status.

Despite the above discussed legal procedures, the practice in the actual ground has been varying from time to time and depending with the circumstances. In an interview with one of the immigration officers working at the Kibondo district, he said most of the asylum seekers who arrives and presents themselves to the Village Executive Officers (VEO) are not properly handled. Some VEOs don’t even register them, they tell them that I have seen you so you can proceed to go to the reception center. As the result, some of the asylum seekers are considered as illegal immigrants when found with the immigration officers before arriving because they lack the proof as to whether they presented themselves soon after their arrival in the country.

Living as a Refugee in Tanzania

Historically, Tanzania is among of the countries that are praised for their generosity of hosting the large number of refugees in Africa. For a number of decades, the country has been a home to the large number of refugees in the great lake region of Africa. The large number of refugees that have been hosted in Tanzania for many years include the Burundian refugees, the refugees from Rwanda, and the Congolese refugees who have continuously fled their country due to the political instability that have been happening from time to time causing massive violation of the human rights. Generosity towards refugees have continued to depreciate from time to time and hatred towards them has continued to be seen through various incidents including the speeches that have been offered by the top leaders of the country. That gives the picture of the way even the distribution of the social service to the refugees have been currently. The UNHCR has been working hard to ensure the living condition of the refugees continues to be improved, unfortunately the cooperation from the government have continued to deteriorate from time to time. Not only that, but also the government has even intervened in the provision of the necessary social services making life difficult for refugees for the purpose of encouraging repatriation.

Compliance to the 1951 Refugee Convention by African Countries

Apart from Tanzania, there are many other African countries which are the state parties to either the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of the refugees or the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees whose signatories commits themselves to uphold the principles enshrined under the refugee convention. As of now, only three states in Africa that hasn’t yet acceded to either of the afore mentioned instruments which are Eritrea, Libya and Mauritius.

by the end of the year 2023, Rwanda had hosted up to135,593 asylum seekers and refugee from the neighboring country, the Republic of Kenya had hosted the refugees and asylum seekers up to 623,500 of which 86% are the Somalian and Sudanese. Uganda had/is hosting the largest number of refugees currently where the reports show that by early 2024, it had reached the number of 1.5 million refugees and asylum seekers, the number which is calculated to be 3.6% of the country’s population. By the end of 2023, South Africa had hosted up to 242,000 refugees and asylum seeker whose origin is from different countries in Africa.