TANZANIA. Kigoma and Kisulu districts in Western Tanzania.

Home for more than 40,000 Congolese refugees, Nyarugusu camp is run by the UNHCR. On 16th Septemebr 2009 the neighboring Congolese camp of Luguf was closed down by the Tanzanian government. 1200 refugees were sent to Nyarugusu Camp in a convoy of 23 trucks and buses.

Trucks arrive in Nyarugusu and the refugees face spending their first night in the open. Officials process the families arriving with strict controls over what materials are issued to help them build new houses and shelters. On the first night they are given one meal of maize porridge per person, String, Plastic sheeting, poles, bricks and other materials to build a temporary shelter for the first night. Refugee Kabonga Tugama with one of his children climbs off one of the trucks.

Tanzania has been host to large numbers of refugees for many decades refugees come to Tanzania from countries affected by conflict in the Great Lakes region of Africa, such as Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In 2004, there were around 630,000 refugees in Tanzania according to government estimates. This number has dropped steadily over the last decade due to a policy of “voluntary repatriation” pursued by the Tanzanian government. The Tanzanian government plans to empty its refugee camps within this year despite fears that the situation in Burundi, the DRC and other countries within the Great Lakes region remains unstable and continues to be dangerous and potentially life-threatening for those who return.
Life in the refugee camps has been harsh for the refugees, especially women. Refugees are wholly dependent on humanitarian aid because of the 1998 Refugees Act imposed on them by government which restricts their movements as well as their right to work. These restrictions, combined with limited access to land for cultivation, insufficient food and other assistance exposes them, particularly refugee women and children to the risk o