The Director of the Department of Refugees in Tanzania, Sudi Exon Mwakibasi is pointing out here that when countries go into war and other forms of conflicts, they not only produce displaced persons.
“Refugees’ problems may include cases of human trafficking,” Mwakibasi tells the delegates at the conference for the African Chapter of International Association of Refugees and Migration Judges (IARM) in Arusha.
“The issue of refugees’ movements sometimes also involves serious cases of human trafficking, illicit weapons proliferation, illegal cross-border trade and other forms of multinational crime.”
It was explained by the Tanzanian official in-charge of the refugees’ department.
The Director called upon the IARM to conduct thorough research on the matter, in order to come up with the ultimate solutions to problems affecting refugees and countries that host them.
Meanwhile it was observed that long as many countries in the world remain in the state of wars, conflicts and natural disasters, the issue of refugees will continue to be part and parcel of daily existence.
That was pointed out by the Deputy Minister of Constitutional and Legal Affairs Geoffrey Mizengo Pinda, during the closing of the Conference for the African Chapter of International Association of Refugees and Migration Judges (IARM).
“Refugees will always be with us and it is our sole responsibility to welcome displaced persons and assist them to settle and adopt, these are people like us only that circumstances force them to flee from their homes, jobs and families in bid to save lives,” said Pinda.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that there are more than 100 million displaced people around the world with nearly 260,000 of them being hosted in Tanzania.
Many of the refugees in Tanzania hail from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Previously, Tanzania was also home to millions of people who fled from Rwanda following the 1994 Genocide in the country.
The Eastern Europe war between Russia and Ukraine on the other hand is displacing millions of people and so far, nearly 800,000 Ukrainians are seeking refuge in Germany alone, as Dr Stefanie Rothernberger from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation told the IARM meeting earlier.