The Tanzanian government plans to close the last remaining camp before the end of September.

Bishop Protase Rugambwa of Kigoma Diocese in the west of Tanzania told the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) of his hopes for the future after UN reports stated that Burundian refugees who numbered half a million just a decade ago have fallen to 36,000.

Bishop Rugambwa spoke of how for years his diocese considered support for the refugees to be an essential part of its pastoral work.

“We have tried to accompany them and help them spiritually, to seek peace and change their mentality away from hatred towards reconciliation,” he said.

Bishop Rugambwa described how last month he visited Mtabilia, the last remaining camp, where he conducted confirmations for candidates prepared by the Holy Ghost Fathers, a religious order of priests.

There was a steady flow of Burundian refugees into Tanzania between the mid-1960s and early 1990s. About 300,000 are reported to have fled during the mass slaughter that occurred as part of ethnic struggles in 1972.

Since 2002, when it was first considered safe for the refugees to return home, more than 400,000 have returned. Not everyone has wanted to return, however, and last month 3,500 Burundians were granted Tanzanian citizenship.

The Holy Ghost Fathers are one of the religious orders, along with the Missionaries of Africa, doing pastoral work in the diocese.

Bishop Rugambwa said, “You can be doing pastoral work, but it obliges you to enter into the social area, and found schools and so on.” The bishop described the establishment of schools and hospitals as “traditional areas of activity” in the diocese.