The East African Community needs more than $700 million to cater for refugees this year, even as the political instability in Burundi continues to add to the number of displaced people in the region.

Estimates from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) show that Kenya leads the region with an estimated annual budget of $370 million for the more than 600,000 refugees living in camps in the country.

Tanzania is expected to spend $174 million for the close to 170,000 refugees it is hosting, while Rwanda will spend $95 million for hosting 147,000 refugees and Uganda is expected to spend $66 million on 90,000 refugees.

This increased spending comes even as Kenya is leading an onslaught on repatriation in the region following its decision to close the Dadaab refugee camp. The region has shouldered a heavy burden of hosting refugees for years with limited or diminishing international support.

READ: Kenya drawing up timetable to close refugee camp for Somalis

ALSO READ: Refugee crisis: Its about the money and the global politics

Ahmed Fall, UNHCR’s head of operations at Dadaab recently said that severe funding shortages in the Dadaab camps has forced them to cut food rations twice in the past three years as they struggle to meet monthly budget. Scaling back by donor countries has seen UNHCR and the World Food Programme struggle to provide recommended rations.

READ: WFP to reduce food rations for refugees in Kenya by 50pc

Mid last week, Rwanda expelled more than 1,500 Burundians who had refused to move to refugee camps. The country is hosting tens of thousands of Burundians who have fled more than one year of political violence in their country, while others had illegally moved to Rwanda for economic reasons.

Melchior Nankwahomba, the governor of Burundi’s Kirundo Province on the border with Rwandan told Reuters that: “We have information that some of these people were sent away without any of their possessions by Rwandan local officials. They were asked to go to refugee camps or return back to Burundi.”

According to an April 30 report by Unicef, the number of Burundian refugees in Rwanda has increased to 76,603 with about 48,450 of them living in Mahama camp, a majority of them being children. Rwanda hosts 147,000 Congolese and Burundian refugees in six refugee camps across the country.

Frederic Ntawukuriryayo, the communication officer for Rwanda’s Ministry for Disaster Management and Refugee Preparedness said that the signed tripartite agreement with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other partners binds the country to honour the spending on these refugees.

Tanzania is also currently hosting tens of thousands of refugees from Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo but in 2013, the government expelled more than 25,000 Burundian refugees whom it viewed as illegal immigrants. This caused an uproar after rights groups accused Tanzania of going against international laws on repatriation of refugees.

READ: Burundians to lose refugee status in Tanzania

According to the UNHCR, more than 225,000 Burundians have fled their country since April 1, 2015 to Tanzania, Rwanda, DR Congo and Uganda, with a majority of them being children. Currently, Tanzania is hosting almost 110,000 Burundi refugees.

Uganda is also struggling to host refugees from the DR Congo, Burundi and South Sudan estimated at 90,000. Two years ago, Uganda started repatriating more than 184,000 DR Congo refugees. It also repatriated more than 70,000 South Sudanese refugees.

Host Country	Refugees Source Country	Number Of Refugees	Annual Costs	Refugee Camps
Kenya	• Somali • South Sudan • Ethiopia • Burundi • DR Congo	600,000	$370m	• Dadaab • Ifo • Kakuma
Tanzania	• Burundi • DR Congo • Rwanda	170,000	$174m	• Nyarungusu • Mtabila • Mutendeli • Ndutu
Rwanda	• Burundi • DR Congo	147,000	$94m	• Mahama • Kiheme • Nyabiheke • Kiziba • Mugombwa
Uganda	• South Sudan • Burundi • DR Congo • Rwanda • Kenya	130,000	$66m	• Navikale • Kyaka • Oruchinga • Kisoro • Kyangwali • Alere
DR Congo	• Burundi	27,000	$31m	• Lusenda
Source: Various sources