World Refugee Day

This past Saturday (June 20) was World Refugee Day.

I was informed of this by a few friends here in Dar and I was able to participate in the Tanzanian event/walk through the downtown core, hear testimonies from some refugees and an adress from the Tanzanian director for the UNHCR.

Tanzania, because of its relatively peaceful history, cooperative political situation and geographical location has been a haven to hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighboring countries over the years. Conflicts in Burundi, the DR Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Somalia have caused many to flee their homes, jobs, loved ones, languages, countries to find refuge in Tanzania.

In 2007, Tanzania had about 350 000 refugees hosted in 11 different camps. And over 35 years ago in 1972, 220 000 people fled from Burundi during its civil war, many of which are still living in camps in Tanzania today. Some of the Burundi refugees remaining in Tanzania were born and raised in here, speak swahili and were educated in the Tanzania school system, yet did not have citizenship or a real home. I cannot image what it would be like to spend your entire life in a refugee camp, but there are thousands of them here in Tanzania.

I am told that refugees are only alowed to move within a 4km radius of the camp which many use to find employment on farms or gather firewood. Over a timeline of 35 years, many people begin to make homes and start lives in these camps. These camps are not the tent cities that you might have seen in pictures but real villages, densly populated with homes and narrow streets. Yet, there are little oppurtunities for refugees whether with employment or education. They are not given the oppurtunities to develop ordinary lives, own land, attend university, make real savings, or develop business and agricultural skills. Many struggle to find a purpose or vocation and have little to do remaining wholly dependant upon food rations and aid. Furthermore, about 60% of refugees in these camps are children.

While I walked through the city center and into a TZ ministry building, I took a seat in one of the pews and heard a speach from the Tanzanian home affairs minister and some UN staff. I was told how today there are less than 150 000 refugees in Tanzania as many have returned home and by 2012 Tanzania aims to have none. They also announced that some refugees, many who spent their whole lives in these camps are being offered citizenship is Tanzania.

Yet afterwards there was a presentation from some Burundi and Somalian refugees, first of their traditional drumming and dancing and then their heart-felt testomonies.

I was told how the Somalian refugees, centuries ago, were removed from their homes in Tanzania by the slave trade and taken North into Somalia. Over 300 years later, civil war in Somalia caused them to retrace the footsteps of their ancestors and find refuge in the very land they had left behind, discovering that they share the same language as those in the region.

One Somalian woman shared her story in a passionate adress to the politicians and other listeners in the room. Although it was in swahili (later translated), this woman's voice echoed with strength, frusteration and a rage with the situation in her camp. She spoke of the lack of medical supplies, sanitary living conditions, adequate food, clean water, land, education and much more, reminding us of what they are going through.

Despite the Tanzanian government, the UN, and larger international community doing much to assist these displaced people, there is much that remains unresovled. The Tananian government's goal to remove all refugees is a good one, but not if it is forcing people back into their countries where things may not be completely safe.

It is easy for us to pass judgement on the Tanzanian government, criticising the way they run the camps and how they keep much of the situations private and hidden from the public and media. Yet, we in the developed world are even more strict and demanding when it comes to immigration, refugees, and other matters of this sort.

While the UNHCR deals with just over 8 million refugees, there are an estimated 62 million refugees in the world not given official status or rights. Conflicts in the Congo, Somalia, and in Darfur nearby to Tanzania continue to rage on, often with little attention to the public. Here in Tanzania it is a close reality, they have opened their doors to hundread of thousands and are struggling to manage this overwhelming number of people. In Canada we can often remained separated, intellectually and physically, from these people. Yet it does not reduce the urgency of the issue or the reality of it all.

[this post was supposed to go up last week, but internet and computer problems are limiting... Karibu Tanzani = "welcome to tanzania"