Burundi Risks to be forgotten

Burundian Refugees in Lusanda Camp Burundian Refugees in Lusanda Camp Colin Delfosse/UNHCR

1 June 2018

On the 6th of February 2018,  the UNHCR have presented this appeal to their donors in Geneva in hopes the Burundian refugees do not become a forgotten crisis

 The the UN Refugee Agency, along with its 26 other humanitarian partners, is launching a funding appeal for $391 million to support some 430,000 Burundian refugees during 2018. The UNHCR is urging donors for assistance due to the low levels of humanitarian funding. Burundian refugees could get 21 percent of necessary funds which would make it the world's least funded refugee response plan.  

 Since 2015, it is estimated estimated that more than 400,000 asylum seekers have left the country due to human rights abuses, political uncertainty, and the humanitarian crisis. Unless the political and socio-economic situations improve, the refugee crisis will only worsen. Countries like Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are hosting the largest majority of refugees while thousands have fled to South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique. The Government of Burundi has been asking refugees to return but Rache Nicholson, Amnesty International’s Burundi Researcher, says “while the Burundian government says all is well and urges refugees to return, more Burundians continue to flee the country due to repression and insecurity.”

 Humanitarian assistance was not able to reach acceptable standards because of the lack of resources which include food cuts, overcrowding in classrooms, and the inability to respond to all gender and sexual based violence.

 The UNHCR is working to remind Burundi’s neighbors to maintain their international responsibilities to accept refugees at borders and provide protection as well as never to force refugees to return to Burundi against their will.

 

To know more, please read:

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/09/burundi-thousands-of-refugees-under-pressure-to-return-despite-risk-of-torture-and-killings/

http://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2018/2/5a79676a4/burundi-risks-becoming-forgotten-refugee-crisis-support.html

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