Assisted returns of Burundian refugees begin from the DRC

When Geraldine Ntihebuwayo heard that there were plans to facilitate the voluntary return of Burundian refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, she signed up with excitement.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, assisted the first group of 287 Burundian refugees to return home last week. Geraldine and her family were among them.

“I am happy to return home,” said the 30-year-old single mother, who also cares for her elderly mother, aged 70, and two nieces.

The convoy was the latest one to join the UNHCR-facilitated returns to Burundi already being organized from neighbouring Tanzania and Rwanda. It arrived at Gatumba border crossing on 23 of September, bringing home refugee families that previously lived in a transit centre in Kamvimvira and Lusenda refugee camp in South Kivu.  

“I am happy to return home.”

Geraldine fled Burundi last year and had been living in Kamvimvira where she worked extracting gravel from the nearby river to help sustain her large family.

“Life was becoming unbearable and my body was failing me due to exhausting daily work,” she said, of her decision to return home.

She had previously tried to return to Burundi on her own twice – the first time, her family was forced to turn back after a failed attempt to cross through an informal border point and the second time at Gatumba border because the two countries had closed their borders to control the spread of coronavirus.

Now, she is happy to have received support from UNHCR to return in a safe and dignified manner.

Her immediate goal is to enroll her son, who recently turned 7, in school. 

“My son must go to school or he will fall too far behind and be lost,” she said. “That is why I chose to return with the first convoy.” 

Like many other returnees who were in the same convoy, she has reintegration concerns. Before fleeing, she used to rent a small house in a remote area of Gihanga in western Burundi where she supported her family through subsistence farming. 

Following Burundi’s President Évariste Ndayishimiye’s call for Burundian refugees in the region to return home, Geraldine hopes that the local administration will help her to identify a shelter. 

“I hope to rent some land to cultivate and start a small business so I can provide for my family,” she added. 

Abdul Karim Ghoul, UNHCR’s Representative in Burundi called for joint efforts by all stakeholders in the return process, including the government of Burundi, UNHCR and other UN humanitarian and development agencies, NGOs and the donor community to ensure that reintegration occurs seamlessly.

“There are challenges that need to be addressed for returns to become truly sustainable,” he said. “We will work together to ensure reintegration conditions are durable.”

In Burundi, transit centres have been constructed and/or rehabilitated to temporarily accommodate returnees on arrival in various parts of the country.  Consistent with the Burundian national protocol on COVID-19 prevention and control, measures have been put in place that include, inter alia, the installation of isolation centers and rapid testing mechanisms. 

“We will work together to ensure reintegration conditions are durable.”

UNHCR conducts pre-departure formalities such as registration, health screenings and interviews to ascertain the voluntariness of returnees’ decision to return. Upon arrival in Burundi, returnees are provided with an initial assistance package that includes food and non-food items as well as cash grants to help them restart their lives.  

UNHCR has called for the support of the international community to mobilize required resources for the return and reintegration programme in Burundi. 

Since 2017, over 98,000 Burundian refugees in the region have been assisted to return home, including some 19,000 thus far in 2020. The majority of the returns have been happening from Tanzania, but Burundian refugees are increasingly joining the return movements. In August, assisted returns were initiated from Rwanda, and a second convoy from the DRC is being organized for later this week.

Pending conditions conducive to promoting voluntary repatriation, UNHCR is only facilitating the return to Burundi of Burundian refugees who make an informed decision to exercise their right to return home in safety and dignity, consistent with the provisions of tripartite agreements on voluntary repatriation between UNHCR and the governments of the respective countries of asylum.

More than 375,000 Burundian refugees are hosted in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and other countries in the region and further afield; most of whom fled the country in 2015.