In September 2014, almost after four years of moratorium of the decision made in 2010 to naturalise and locally integrate 162,156 former Burundian refugees who arrived in Tanzania as a result of the 1972 situation in Burundi, the President of the United Republic of Tanzania lifted the moratorium and directed that the newly naturalized people be issued with their citizenship certificates. In November 2014, the distribution of naturalization certificates to the 162,156 new citizens started. UNHCR and the Government of Tanzania have so far issued 151,019 citizenship certificates to new citizens. By the end of 2015, about 93 per cent of the 162,156 new Tanzanian citizens (NTCs) received their citizenship certificates. This is expected to strengthen their citizenship rights and responsibilities. The certificate issuance has legally ensured the former refugees to be naturalised Tanzanians and their children born thereafter being guaranteed to a right of citizenship at birth. This has minimised the risk of statelessness among the group of former 1972 Burundian refugees referring to the fact that the majority of them had renounced their country of origin citizenship.
However, there are still some other 1972 Burundian refugees in Tanzania who have not yet found a durable solution. These fall in two main groups and are estimated to be about 50,000 individuals. The majority of them reside in villages in Kigoma Region of Northwest Tanzania (22,000 according to the last population verification exercise in 2010). However, with a growth rate of 4 per cent, it could be estimated that there will be about 31,000 individuals in 2017. Also, within the group of pending cases there are about 19,000 pending cases inside the settlements. UNHCR will continue to advocate with the government to finalize their naturalization and full integration as promised by the Government of Tanzania.
2017