By ERIC ODINYA
Special Correspondent

Tanzania has closed down several refugee camps and merged others as it prepares for a December repatriation deadline.

In a joint programme with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 27,287 Burundian refugees and 21,405 Congolese have been repatriated this year while 550 Somalis of Zigua origin have been allowed to become Tanzanian citizens.

In addition, 5,498 refugees have been resettle in the United States, Australia, Netherlands, Norway and Finland.

The refugee population in the camps has reduced from 287,000 in January 2007 to some 228,522 at the end of October.

Currently there are 124,706 refugees from Burundi, 101,309 from DRC, 1,362 from Somali and a mixed population of 1,145.

UNHCR senior media officer for the Balkans, West Africa and Great Lakes Andrej Mahecic told The EastAfrican from Brussels that cutting down the number of refugees has enabled Tanzania and the UNHCR to close or merge camps since the beginning of this year.

Mr Mahecic said camps in Northwest Tanzania have reduced from 11 to six by the end of September while structures in the closed camps have been handed over to the regional administration.

The remaining camps are Lukole (Ngara district), Kanembwa and Nduta (Kibondo district) and Matabila (Kisulu district) which host Burundi refugees while Nyarugusu (Kasulu district) and Lugufu (Kigoma district) host Congolese refugees. The Somali refugees are in Chogo settlement in Tanga region.

As part of a new strategy to promote voluntary return and partly address the social economic challenges faced by the returnees in their home countries, the UNHCR introduced a cash grant for Burundi returnees arriving from Northwestern Tanzania. So far, more than 23,500 refugees have received the grant on their return.

The programme included a deal with the World Food programme where food packages to returnees were raised in September to a six-months ration in the Burundian and Congolese camps.

Tanzania is among the countries with the largest number of refugees in the world.