STATELESSNESS AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY step forward. They needed to show their naturalization application documents, and shortly after they were released. “Stanley”, 29 Stanley, a former Burundian refugee, already naturalized in 2013, was caught on the street in his village in Kagera region and deported to Rwanda. According to him the method that police and immigration officers used to determine whom to capture was simply looking at people’s faces and judging if someone looked like Munyarwanda. They would catch people, take them to the police station, and then transport them to Rwanda without asking any questions or even giving them a chance to prove their citizenship. Stanley was caught and transported to Rwanda with a large group of people. When they reached the border, they were told: “Kama unajijua wewe ni raia wa Tanzania njoo hapa” (meaning “if you know you are a citizen of Tanzania come here”). At this point those who were citizens had to step forward and show their identification card (or other document). Stanley showed his naturalization documents, and he was released and allowed to go back to Tanzania (he had to buy a bus ticket and travel back by himself). He said that those who did not have their national identification card or any other document were handed over to Rwandan border officers. Stanley returned to his village in Kagera region and he lives there now, as he says, without fear. “Steven”, 35 Steven is one of the Burundian refugees who opted to repatriate to Burundi during the naturalization exercise in 2008, but a few months later he came back to Tanzania and settled in the city of Tabora. During Operation Kimbunga police came to his family and asked for their permits. He did not have any documents, and was taken to the police station and imprisoned for one year (2013-2014). He was eventually released when his family collected enough money for bail. Comorians in Zanzibar A community of people of Comorian descent has lived in Zanzibar since before the period of Omani rule established in the 19th century. More arrived in Zanzibar under the Omani sultanate and during the British protectorate over Zanzibar (1890−1963), at all levels of economic and social status, from manual labourers to civil servants and religious leaders. Because Comoros was a French and not British colony, the Comorians had a different status from immigrants to Zanzibar from other territories under British “protection”, a distinction that they were keen to emphasize as one way of gaining higher status than other “natives”. Under the 1911 decree on Zanzibari nationality, those of Comorian descent born in Zanzibar were not automatically subjects of the Sultan, unless they applied to be so. From 1952, Zanzibari nationality was automatically attributed on the basis of birth in the Sultan’s dominions, but not to subjects or citizens of countries named in a schedule to the 1952 Nationality Decree, which included France. Comorians in Zanzibar thus were not subjects of the Sultan, nor British protected persons, but rather remained French subjects.261 The 1963 independence constitution of Zanzibar established in the islands a jus soli rule for those born before or after independence, with only the usual limited exceptions; and from 1964, when Zanzibar joined Tanganyika to form the United Republic of Tanzania, the Tanganyika Citizenship Act was extended to recognise as citizens of Tanzania those born prior to union in Zanzibar, as well as those born after union in any part of the United Republic.262 261 See Iain Walker, “Comorians and Hadramis in the western Indian Ocean: Diasporic practices in a comparative context”, Journal of Social Dynamics, 2012, Vol. 38 (3), pp. 435-453; Iain Walker, “Identity and citizenship among the Comorians of Zanzibar, 18861963” in Abdul Sheriff & Engseng Ho (eds.), The Indian Ocean: Oceanic Connections & Creation of New Societies, London: Hurst & Co, 2014; Gillian Marie Shepherd, The Comorians in Kenya: The Establishment and Loss of an Economic Niche, PhD Dissertation, London School of Economics, 1982. 262 Constitution of the State of Zanzibar, 1963, Chapter I; Tanganyika Citizenship Act 1961, as amended, sections 3 and 10(1). See also Fransman’s British Nationality Law, Catalogue entry on Tanzania. UNHCR / September 2018 63