Draft:Status of homeless and refugee in Tanzania

= Non refoulement principle in Tanzania = As discussed in the second chapter of this study, the concept of non-refoulement is considered to be the large portion forming the necessary protection in the international human rights law, international refugee law, international humanitarian law and also in customary international law. It is the principle which is against the actions of the states that involves removing or sending back the individuals from their jurisdiction or frontiers to other territories where they had fled for the purpose of protecting their freedom or life at large which would be in severe harm/endangered.

= Refugee Status Determination in Tanzania: Reality on the Ground = In Tanzania, it the requirement of the law that any person who enters the country to seek asylum, he or she must within seven days present him/herself to an authorized officer or a village executive officer or a justice of peace and ask or apply to be recognized as a refuge. The applications are then sent to the Director of the Refugee Services (DRS) who after receiving them convenes the National Eligibility Committee for the purpose of making an evaluation regarding to who qualifies to be granted the refugee status and who doesn’t qualify to be granted the status.

Despite the above discussed legal procedures, the practice in the actual ground has been varying from time to time and depending with the circumstances. In an interview with one of the immigration officers working at the Kibondo district, he said most of the asylum seekers who arrives and presents themselves to the Village Executive Officers (VEO) are not properly handled. Some VEOs don’t even register them, they tell them that I have seen you so you can proceed to go to the reception center. As the result, some of the asylum seekers are considered as illegal immigrants when found with the immigration officers before arriving because they lack the proof as to whether they presented themselves soon after their arrival in the country.