DAR ES SALAAM, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said Tuesday that Tanzania remained the largest host of Burundi refugees.
"Tanzania has become host to more than 241,000 refugees and asylum-seekers from Burundi since the outbreak of violence in 2015, making it the largest host of Burundian refugees in the region," said the UNHCR in a report to mark the World Refugee Day published on Tuesday.
The UNHCR's new Global Trends report, the organization's major annual survey of displacement said at the end of 2016 there were 65.6 million people forcibly displaced worldwide, some 300,000 more than a year earlier.
Two years after the outbreak of violence in Burundi, children account for more than 60 percent of Burundian new arrivals in Tanzania, said the report.
"Significant numbers of new arrivals continue to flee to the country, with 44,487 having arrived in the first five months of 2017," it said.
Tanzania is currently home to more than 315,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, mainly from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They are hosted in three refugee camps of Nyarugusu, Nduta, and Mtendeli, which face severe pressure.
Nyarugusu camp, which is now one of the largest refugee camps in the world, hosts more than 139,000 individuals and needs to urgently resume a decongestion program, which was halted last July due to limited space in the other camps, said the report.
"UNHCR remains firmly committed to support the government of Tanzania in ensuring refugees continue to receive vital humanitarian assistance, in an environment that allows them to live in safety and with dignity" said UNHCR Representative in Tanzania Chansa Kapaya.
She said the response to Burundian refugees in Tanzania remained severely underfunded, with resources needed across all sectors to respond to the urgent needs of refugees and asylum-seekers.
The Burundi Regional Refugee Response Plan in Tanzania is funded at approximately 6 percent as of the second quarter of 2017, with a gap of more than 203 million U.S. dollars, said Kapaya.
The report said children, who make up half the world's refugees, continue to bear a disproportionate burden of the suffering, mainly because of their greater vulnerability.
UNHCR estimates that at least 10 million people were without a nationality or at risk of statelessness at the end of 2016.
However, data recorded by governments and communicated to UNHCR were limited to 3.2 million stateless people in 75 countries.
