Aid workers are rushing to build sheds and latrines for thousands of Rwandans flocking to an already overcrowded transit camp in northern Burundi, the UN's refugee agency said today.
Almost 8,000 Rwandans from the ethnic Hutu majority have fled to Burundi since early April, saying they feared unfair treatment at village courts trying suspected killers involved in Rwanda's 1994 genocide of 800,000 minority Tutsis and their sympathisers by Hutu extremists, UNHCR said.
Many also say they have fled because of alleged threats and intimidation by Tutsi genocide survivors. Close to 5,000 Rwandans seeking asylum in Burundi have arrived over the past week at Songore camp, close to the border.
UNHCR said many refugees, mostly women and children, have walked up to 50 kms (30 miles) to reach the camp that has a capacity to shelter only 800.
UNHCR spokeswoman Catherine-Lune Grayson said aid workers had built eight sheds to shelter 1,000 people and would construct more in the coming week. "We hope the site should be able to host everyone there by the end of the week," she said. "Within 10 days they should have a roof at least."
UNHCR had also distributed 2,800 plastic sheets to allow the refugees to protect their shelters of leaves and branches. UNHCR, at the request of the Burundi government, had moved hundreds of Rwandans from one camp in the interior to Songore, against its own judgment, Lune said.
"We did it because we had to," she said. "The governments of Rwanda and Burundi decided all asylum seekers should be grouped in Songore so it would be easier to meet with them and convince them to go home on a voluntary basis while ensuring their security."
Burundi has said the Rwandans must return home immediately, arguing their presence could disrupt a series of elections it is holding this year as part of its peace process.
The argument was backed on Friday by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who said the flight of the refugees could hurt Rwanda's efforts to seek post-genocide justice.