Since 2015, when deadly clashes were witnessed surrounding Burundi’s presidential election, large numbers of Burundians have fled the country. Today, some 150,000 are estimated to be living in neighbouring Tanzania. Burundian authorities have repeatedly spoken of the need for refugees to return from exile, and in recent years reports have emerged highlighting instances in which Burundians have been abducted, tortured, arbitrarily detained, and forcibly returned to Burundi by Tanzanian authorities–reportedly with the assistance from Burundi. On 13 April 2021, UN experts–including members of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances–criticised the Burundian authorities’ involvement in these rights abuses. (For more information on these reports, see 14 April Tanzania update on this platform).
At least eight Burundians forcibly returned are known to have been detained without charge in Bubanza Prison and Muramvya Prison. Despite calls to release the detainees, on 26 February 2021 the Muha High Court in Bujumbura ruled against their provisional release–despite the fact that the prosecution had failed to produce any evidence to justify their continued detention.
Conditions in these prisons–and others in the country–are known to be extremely poor. In April 2020, the UN Commission of Enquiry on Burundi reported that prisons were severely overcrowded, and that detainees faced restricted access to medical care, food, and hygiene supplies, raising concerns for the safety of detainees amidst the pandemic. (In May 2020, Muramvya Prison–which has capacity for 100 detainees–was confining 866.)
- OHCHR, “UN Experts Deplore Rights Violations Against Burundi Refugees,” 13 April 2021, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26990&LangID=E
- Human Rights Watch, “Burundi: Free Forcibly Returned Refugees,” 8 March 2021, https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/08/burundi-free-forcibly-returned-refugees
- ACAT-Burundi, “Rapport de Monitoring des Violations des Droits des prisonniers,” May 2020, https://www.acatburundi.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Rapport-de-monitoring-des-droits-des-prisonniers-pour-le-mois-de-Mai-2020.pdf
- OHCHR, “Déclaration de la Commission d’enquête de l’ONU sur le Burundi : la transparence, le respect des standards internationaux et l’aide humanitaire sont indispensables au combat contre la pandémie de COVID-19,” 10 April 2020, https://www.ohchr.org/FR/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25790&LangID=F
