Burundian, Tanzanian and UNHCR officials meet to boost repatriation of Burundian refugees in Tanzania

BUJUMBURA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Delegates from Burundi, Tanzania and UNHCR on Monday started a three-day meeting in the Burundian capital Bujumbura to seek ways of boosting the repatriation of Burundian refugees living in Tanzania.

"We are glad that the repatriation process is going on well, but the figures need to be boosted," said Therence Ntahiraja, assistant to the Burundian interior minister at the launch of the tripartite meeting.

Some 20,700 Burundian refugees were voluntarily repatriated from Tanzania since the last tripartite meeting in August 2017, said Ntahiraja. "This figure is higher than our expectations," he said.

During the past two years, over 200,000 Burundian refugees in Tanzania came back home, said Ntahiraja.

Over 30,000 other Burundian refugees who registered last year for the voluntary repatriation need to be repatriated, said Harrison Wingia Mseke, the head of the Tanzanian delegation and director of the refugee department of the Tanzanian home affairs ministry. Enditem