Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday accused Tanzanian authorities of violating the rights of Burundian refugees. The report states that at least 18 refugees and asylum seekers have been abused since 2019, while also mentioning that the location of some who were forcibly disappeared remains unknown.

“Between October 2019 and August 2020, Tanzanian police and intelligence services forcibly disappeared, tortured, and arbitrarily detained at least 11 Burundians for up to several weeks in abysmal conditions in a police station in Kibondo, Kigoma region,” the report states. “Three were released in Tanzania, and Tanzanian authorities forcibly returned the other eight to Burundi in August, where they have been detained without charge. Tanzanian police have arrested and forcibly disappeared seven other refugees and asylum seekers since January 2020.”

According to HRW, “[m]ore than 150,000 Burundian refugees live in camps in Tanzania, many of whom fled violence in Burundi after then-president Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a disputed third term in 2015.”

The Burundians said that Tanzanian police detained them in rooms with no electricity or windows, took them to a separate building on the police station grounds, and hanged them from the ceiling by their handcuffs. Some said that police and intelligence agents gave them electric shocks, rubbed their faces and genitals with chili, and beat and whipped them. In some cases, police and intelligence officers told them they had received information from Burundian authorities about them, suggesting collusion between agents from the two countries.

The report proposes recommendations to both the Tanzanian and the Burundian governments to investigate and prevent further abuses, including releasing forcibly disappeared persons, detained refugees and asylum seekers.