Tanzania: Number of refugees drops below 300 000

The number of refugees in United Nations camps in northwestern Tanzania has dropped from 350, 590 in 2005 to 287,061 in 2006, below the 300,000 mark. The number of refugee camps in the country is also expected to soon decrease from 11 to eight. Yacoub el-Hillo, United Nations High Commission for Refugees country representative to Tanzania, has attributed the decrease of refugees to voluntary repatriation thanks to improvement of political situations in the origin countries of refugees.