Executive Summary
The objective of this study is to bring new light on how Congolese and Burundian refugees live from day to day in exile in the Great Lakes region, and how they perceive and understand the options available to them in this context. The research is a continuation of that started in 2010 in a joint effort between the Danish Refugee Council and the Congolese and Burundian civil society organisations ADEPAE (Action pour le Développement et la Paix Endogènes), Rema Industries, and SVH (Solidarité des Volontaires pour l’Humanité). Using testimonies gathered from Congolese and Burundian refugees in seven different sites in Burundi, DRC and Tanzania, the purpose of the research is to bring the position of the refugees to the attention of national and local politicians and decision-makers when they deal with the refugees’ problems and seek solutions for them.
A second objective is to bring a regional perspective to the problems of displacement, exile and return, and to highlight the limits of the three political solutions offered by the existing normative framework: a voluntary return to the country of origin; integration locally into the host country; or resettlement in a third country.
The great majority of these Congolese and Burundian refugees in exile in Tanzania, Burundi and DRC were forced to flee wars and violence resulting from the socio-political history of their countries. In 1972, 1988 and 1993, hundreds of thousands of Burundians fled in waves from political crises and massacres triggered by the internecine contest for power between the Hutu and Tutsi communities.
In 1996-97, huge numbers of refugees left the DRC when Mobutu was ousted during the AFDL war after thirty years of dictatorship.
These movements continued after the second Congolese war of 1998-2003, and do so today in North and South Kivu as the result of repeated clashes between rebel groups and the regular army. These conflicts affect all citizens without exception and whatever their social standing. However, although the victims of war, and particularly refugees, share a common fate, the effects of displacement are felt very differently by each individual. The interviews carried out with the refugees during this project demonstrate just how different each individual case is. Social status, home and community of origin, knowledge of the country of exile and the local language, existence or not of a support system, family situation, depth of sense of identity, as well as the actual physical escape into exile all contribute to the unique case of each refugee.
The manner of departure from the home country has a direct bearing on the refugee’s ability to come to terms with exile and to overcome obstacles. Departure is often violent and traumatic, even if experienced differently by different people. All the refugees in the study report having witnessed – directly or indirectly – acts of violence committed by armed groups or civilians while fleeing war in their own country, and the memory of these are particularly painful.
Some have been direct victims of violence and still suffer the physical effects. Others have fled out of fear of becoming victims themselves, a fear which prevents them today from envisaging a return home.
The experience of exile ends up having a profound effect on the identity and personality of a refugee. After ten, fifteen or thirty years in exile, the process of reshaping identity is complicated - the refugee is no longer the same person as when he or she left. The process varies according to the personal situation of the refugee and his or her journey into exile: age at the moment of departure; number of years spent outside his or her own country; economic, social, cultural and linguistic differences between the country of origin and the host country; living in a camp surrounded by compatriots; or trying to integrate into a new social structure, are all variables which impact on the personal identity of a refugee.
Given the circumstances of their displacement and their subsequent trajectories, and in spite of the advantages of assistance and humanitarian protection conferred by their refugee status, the Burundians and Congolese describe daily life as precarious, with heightened levels of vulnerability. Whether in camps or in towns and villages, all the refugees say the reality of their existence is that it is inherently uncertain, the financial means at their disposal are limited, they suffer significant social discrimination, are frustrated with their dependence on aid, and have great difficulty envisaging a mid- or long-term future. This is exacerbated by their very limited knowledge of the assistance frameworks on offer, which creates confusion about the options available and affects their ability to look to the future in an informed and objective way. Although the refugees claim they are grateful for this assistance, all of them express dissatisfaction. They criticise both the quality and quantity of the aid, saying that it never fully meets their needs. The resulting economic insecurity has serious social consequences: many refugees admit to resorting to degrading or illegal activities to make up the shortfall.
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