RETURNING REFUGEES

It was Tuesday afternoon. Seth and I, new friend Beth, and the Hiebert crew were enroute back from Tanzania and, at the border, we ran into this: Eight-hundred refugees. Twelve UNHCR trucks. People coming back into Burundi.

I've heard all the stats (as we work with many returning refugees in the south of the country): Tanzanian refugee camps are closing and shooing thousands and thousands of refugees from Burundi back into the country. Many of these have lived in Tanzania since 1972. Many are children and do not know Burundi as home. Many have established as much life as possible in Tanzania and are uprooting the little structure they have to come back to what they do not know and to what they still fear.

And it's another thing to see the faces. To shake their hands. To smile and wave and say (in my pathetic Kirundi) "God bless you and good luck!" (which of course doesn't seem sufficient, but what else to say?)

To wonder what these people are thinking and feeling as they are being brought back into Burundi. And of course, there are more questions than answers:

What do they fear as they return? What will they experience in the few days/weeks in the transit camps? What happens when UNHCR and government support stops? Do they have any family connections that they are returning to? Will they have any access to land (as land issues are so significant)? Potential for work? Access to any sort of health care? Education for themselves or their children?... Hope?