JUDICIAL experts and members of the diplomatic corps have praised Tanzania’s unwavering efforts in hosting refugees and asylum seekers.
The experts, who were speaking separately at the International Association of Refugee and Migration Judges (IARMJ) conference here on Wednesday, lauded Tanzania’s willingness to receive, host and protect refugees and asylum seekers, saying the gesture is worth to be emulated by other countries.
IARMJ Africa Chapter President, Judge Dunstan Mlambo said the choice of hosting the conference in Tanzania for the first time, demonstrated the burden that the country carried in hosting countless revolutionaries fleeing colonialist driven persecutions in their countries of origin.
He applauded Tanzania for its role in getting rid of colonial regimes, in Southern Africa in particular.
“My own uncle Johnson Phillip Mlambo spent his exile years in this country after his release from Robben Island,” he recalled.
The said uncle, who died last year, was a South African politician and anti-Apartheid fighter.
Deputy Development Director, Ms Eduarda Mendonca-Gray from the UK High Commission commended Tanzania for its efforts of shielding refugees and asylum seekers since independence.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Country Representative, Ms Mahoua Parums described the country as a land of peace, stability, generosity and hospitality.
“Tanzania remains the champion of inclusion, notably for naturalizing refugees from Burundi and Rwanda,” she said.
According to Ms Marums, as of December 2021, Tanzania was a home to around 250,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, mainly from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, who mostly reside in the Nduta and Nyarugusu refugee camps in the country’s Kigoma region.
Since September 2017, some 142,000 Burundian refugees have voluntarily returned to Burundi.
The UNHCR Representative to Tanzania divulged on President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s pledge of continue caring for refugees and asylum seekers from neighboring countries.
“This and many other commitments by Tanzania justify the decision of choosing the country to host this high profile meeting,” she said.
IARMJ President Judge Isaac Lenaola on his part, was nostalgic of the days he served at the East Africa Court (EACJ), saying he had fallen in love with Tanzania, thanks to its peace and stability.
In her remarks, the President of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) President Justice Imani Aboud pointed out that Africa was currently experiencing all forms of migratory trends which includes movement within Africa as well as movement directed outside the continent.
Most prominent among these trends according to Lady Justice Aboud were labour migration, refugees and internally displaced persons.
“Unsurprisingly, given the general youthfulness of Africa’s population, a good percentage of the African population that is on the move comprises young people,” she explained.
She equally reminded the that the jurisdiction of the African Court extends to all other human rights instrument ratified by the State concerned and is not limited to instruments adopted by the African Union.
Among other things, yesterday’s conference sought to develop the capacity of judges, refugee status decision-makers and other relevant government officials in refugee and migration law and related human rights law as well as provide participants with a plenary forum in which to discuss and reflect on—including in comparative perspective—the critical issues and challenges they face in their work.
