wfn.org | [ENS] Bishops visit refugees in Tanzania,

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Daybook, from Episcopal News Service

Thursday Thesis: People of Purpose

Bishops visit refugees in Tanzania, insist 'we must do more'

[ENS] -- Claiming "we must do more for the world's refugees," a
delegation
of Episcopal Church bishops and staff visited four refugee camps in
Western
Tanzania June 30-July 1.

The camps claim more than 70,000 residents -- mostly Burundian Hutus --
in
the Kigoma region of the country. The groups met with refugees
individually
and in groups, as well as with staff from NGOs and the UN High
Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR), and visited schools, medical facilities, and
processing centers.

Delegation members returned energized to advocate for both the Episcopal
Church and the United States' government to do more to help the
situation in
Tanzania, as well as other refugees around the world.

"As a church and as a nation, we must do more for the world's refugees,"
Bishop Neil Alexander of Atlanta said as he and others from the
delegation
toured the camps. Bishop Suffragan Catherine Roskam of New York noted
that
"thousands of refugee lives are put on hold because the world cannot
respond
fully and compassionately enough to this extraordinary humanitarian
crisis."

UNHCR, which served more than 480,000 refugees in Tanzania in 2004,
hosted
the Episcopal delegation, providing staff to translate and assist in the
visit. The Kibondo camps are located in western Tanzania, a region said
to
have two seasons--one of red dust, the other of mud. Governments that
permit
UNHCR to establish camps for refugees require that they locate in more
remote areas away from urban centers. These areas are generally poorer
than
other parts of the host country.

UNHCR is currently working in 116 countries to care for an estimated 17
million refugees worldwide. Vulnerable women, children and the elderly
make
up approximately 80 percent of a "normal" refugee population.

The agency, which administers the camps, says that refugees have three
options available to them: repatriation, if the country from which they
fled
is stable and they can return in safety; local integration, if the host
country is willing to absorb and extend legal status to them; and
resettlement in a third country, if the other options don't work.

Tanzania, host to the fourth largest number of refugees in the world,
has in
the past consistently opened its doors to refugees from neighboring
countries such as Burundi where civil upheaval has occurred. But lately
the
Tanzanian government has not offered local integration as an option, and
has
rewritten its laws to require that refugees -- even Burundians --
considered
by the UNHCR to have a prima facie basis for being granted refugee
status
must first be screened by the Government of Tanzania's Home Affairs
Ministry. This has resulted in some number of refugees, particularly
from
Rwanda, being denied refugee status. Resettlement is often the only
option
for these persons.

Officials hope that, when conditions permit, most of the refugees will
be
able to return to Burundi. Others might be able to remain in Tanzania if
the
government reconsiders its view of local integration. But others must be
resettled in "third party" countries, such as the United States, if
other
solutions fail. Hundreds of refugees in Tanzania have been in limbo
status
for years, prevented from getting on with their lives.

Alexander said that "while there are many pressing problems for the
refugees, the most urgent now is the severe food shortage which brings
untold suffering to thousands." The World Food Program (WFP) norm for
daily
food rations is 2,100 calories, but the norm in the Tanzanian camps is
now
1,348 calories daily. The reduced food ration is the result of a WFP
miscalculation of the number of refugees who would be repatriated,
funding
shortfalls following donor country cutbacks after the Asian tsunami, and
emerging food crises in countries such as Zimbabwe.

The cutbacks have their most severe impact on women and children. Young
girls skip school and, with their mothers, sneak from the camps to
forage
for food, placing themselves at great risk as they leave the protection
of
the camps. The food problem is exacerbated by the government's decision
to
limit the distance refugees can travel from the camps. The restriction
means
that refugees are no longer able to farm small plots or earn money
working
for local farmers, ways that refugees customarily compensate for food
shortages.

The camp closings stemmed from the murder of a camp police officer in
Mtendeli Camp on June 19. Local Tanzanian authorities attributed the
murder
to a refugee, although no investigation has confirmed the accusation.
Nevertheless, local  authorities restricted all movement of refugees
from
the camps, heightening tensions in the camps and the host community.
Often
these tensions result in greater incidents of domestic and other
violence.

Both bishops noted the possibility of an approach to the refugee crisis
which includes host communities in the provision of services and
infrastructure improvement, so that both refugees and host communities
receive benefits from the presence of refugees in the region. The fact
that
Tanzania has had a long history of hosting refugees suggests that the
rights
of refugees might be respected while extending benefits to adjacent host
communities.

In conversations, refugees reported that school uniforms are considered
necessary for children to attend school, since in refugee camps children
otherwise have no clothes or clothes so tattered that they will not
leave
their huts-just one example of where a seemingly minor problem becomes a
major barrier in giving refugees access to a vital service.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful to support a center where refugee women could
be
trained to sew and then could earn money by making school uniforms,"
said
Roskam. "Refugees would have money for food and more children,
particularly
girls, would attend school."  The bishops recognized the excellent work
being done by the Tanzanian Christian Refugee Services (TCRS), which
receives funding from Church World Service (CWS), among others, and
fully
supports both a secondary school and training center for vocational
skills
at Kanembwa Camp.

UNHCR is required to offer only primary education to camp residents and
generally parallels the mandatory educational offerings of the host
community. Therefore, partners such as the TCRS, which can offer more
services such as secondary education, are critical.  The bishops pointed
out
that at Kanembwa, a camp where TCRS is operational, a greater degree of
hope
was apparent as children and parents are learning skills that will
enable
them to lead fuller lives after they leave the camp.

The delegation had extensive meetings with UNHCR partners who provided
important additional information and insights on the conditions of
refugees
in the camps. The partners included TCRS, International Rescue
Committee,
the Relief to Development Society, Southern Africa Extension Unit,
Tanzania
Water and Environment Sanitation, and WFP.

The meetings and those with the refugee delegations  touched on other
important issues such as the need for facilities to carry and store
water in
order to improve hygiene and have more water for planting, environmental
issues stemming from the cutting down of trees and burning of wood for
charcoal, and health matters.

Malaria prevention is a major concern in the camps, especially for
children,
and there are difficult issues pertaining to medical protocols available
for
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria -- with differences in drug
treatments
between countries, as well as the availability and cost of drugs which
impact on disease prevention as well as treatment.

Mkugwa Camp is home to refugees who are high risk and thus logical
contenders for resettlement in another country. Those at risk include
refugees from mixed marriages of Hutus and Tutsis and those whose
political
involvement makes their return home impossible. Of special concern to
the
group was the need to offer resettlement to some number of these persons
as
well as others who, either because of their vulnerability or protracted
time
in the camps, needed to be given a chance to move forward with their
lives.

The delegation was able to hear lengthy accounts from two refugees who
had
recently arrived in Tanzania. A 25-year-old Sudanese Christian told of
his
painful journey from southern Sudan to Darfur, where he was attacked by
the
janjaweed (Arab militia), to Kenya and finally to Tanzania. A Somali
Bantu
widow wept as she recalled how in early June she had lost both her
husband
and two children who were murdered in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
She
has not been able to find four of her other children who escaped into
the
countryside during the attack. Neither family can return to their
country of
origin and are therefore likely candidates for resettlement.

"The Statue of Liberty should be as relevant today in opening our doors
to
refugees as it has been in the past," said Roskam. "These are families
who
through no fault of their own cannot return to their country of birth."

"We are a generous people, a generous church, and a generous nation --
but
we must and can do more," Roskam concluded. "Education and training,
better
water facilities and medical assistance are all making a difference for
the
refugees. These are the people who are among the targets of the
Millennium
Development Goals to cut worldwide poverty in half by 2015. Also, some
have
no hope of remaining in Tanzania and should benefit from resettlement in
the
U.S. or another third country."

Alexander agreed: "The warehousing of refugees for long periods demands
a
response which acknowledges that refugees have rights that cannot be
enjoyed
if they are confined indefinitely without any prospect of leading full,
productive lives. Our time with the refugees has given us a renewed
sense of
mission that we look forward to sharing in the months ahead."

In addition to Alexander and Roskam, the delegation included the Rev.
Canon
Benjamin Musoke-Lubega, who for the past five years has served as staff
officer for Africa at the Episcopal Church Center in New York and now
will
assume the Africa portfolio for Trinity Wall Street in Manhattan, and
Richard Parkins, director of Episcopal Migration Ministries, both of
whom
organized the trip through the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees. Maureen Shea, director of Government Relations for the
Episcopal
Church, was also a part of the delegation.

Parkins and Shea spent several days in Dar es Salaam meeting with the
UNHCR
staff, various NGOs or implementing partners, and persons involved in
studying the current refugee situation in Tanzania. Additionally, time
was
spent interviewing refugees comprising the urban refugee community in
Dar es
Salaam.

The mission was undertaken as a way of giving greater visibility to and
understanding of the worldwide refugee crisis within the Episcopal
Church.

-- Reported by Maureen Shea and staff colleagues.

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