Dr. Veronica Gabriel Buchumi

Q1. Who are you?  

I am a lecturer of law at the University of Dar es Salaam School of Law, where I also coordinate the Masterprogramme in Migration and Refugee Law. I hold a doctorate degree in law from the University of Bayreuth, Germany. My research interest in the field of forced displacement is in Refugee Law with a special interest in researching and understanding refugees’ rights and durable solutions. Besides, I am interested in studies related to children’s rights and protection. 

Q2. What was your motivation for applying for the FFVT fellowship? Why Germany? 

Though my PhD studies majored in family and child rights and protection, I have an interest and background in refugee and migration studies as I have been involved in teaching migration and refugee law courses at my university. Besides, I have been involved in several commissioned refugee research projects since 2018. Thus, due to my interests in family and child rights and protection, my research interests revolve around a blend of migration and refugee studies and how they intersect with family and child protection issues in a given context. I am currently a member of the Research Chair on Forced Displacement hosted and launched in June 2023 at the Department of Geography at the College of Social Sciences at the University of Dar es Salaam. The research chair operates under one umbrella project titled: Strengthening Knowledge, Evidence Use and Leadership in the Global South on Forced Displacement. Thus, the FFVT Fellowship Programme offers me an opportunity to interact, learn and share experiences in the field of forced displacement from a new and diverse perspective. Having done my PhD studies at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, the fellowship opportunity is an opportunity to deepen my professional, career and personal networks. It is another step towards a profound learning and sharing experience. 

 Q3. What do you expect from the fellowship? 

My expectation from the fellowship revolves around securing an opportunity to share my learning and research experiences on forced displacement with other fellows at the hosting institution (CHREN) and other FFVT partner institutions. Despite the differing socio-economic and legal contexts, I believe learning and appreciating the frameworks for refugee management of other states through the other fellows is essential for constructive recommendations to reform the existing frameworks. 

Q4. What is the focus of your work, and what is innovative about it? / What are your planned outcomes and activities for the fellowship period? And how do they relate to your FFVT hosting institution/ the FFVT cooperation project? 

My research focuses on the refugee phenomenon in East Africa. It examines the law and policy frameworks that regulate and affect the social and economic rights of refugees. I am currently working on the refugees’ rights to marry and found a family where host states adopt encampment policies to manage and host refugees. Refugee encampment, which appears to be a quick and effective way of managing large refugee influx may in turn result in violations of refugees’ rights especially where refugees find themselves in a protracted situation. The research aims to explore the complexities of restrictive refugee laws and policies using refugee encampment as a case study. It unveils how restrictive encampment approaches, that are legally adopted and legitimised, affect refugees' rights to marry, family life and their chances of building strong relations amongst themselves and sometimes with those beyond the camp borders. Initially, the study concentrates on the Tanzanian legal and policy frameworks and their implications on refugees’ lives in the Kigoma region where refugees have been hosted for decades. In the later stages of the study, the study intends to adopt a comparative approach by exploring the similarities and differences in encampment approaches not only in other East African countries but also from other parts of the world. The comparative approach is essential as it helps to unveil and discover existing refugee frameworks and how they deconstruct and reconstruct refugees’ agency to build family lives and relations they want and desire.