EDITORIAL: Burundi refugees: A solution should be found for car owners

Burundian refugees with cars seem to be in a fix. When they first drove in, they thought the turmoil in their country was just a passing cloud and things would be back to normal in no time at all. How they were mistaken. Now those with vehicles are giving them just as much sleepless nights as thoughts of their loved ones back home. Customs laws are very specific: after a certain amount of time, a foreign registered vehicle driving on Rwandan roads either has to drive back home and come in again, or they can register with Rwandan number plates. But that entails paying customs duties and not all cars are eligible; most Burundi-registered vehicles are Right Hand Drive cars which cannot be registered here. The option to give them a four-month grace period after which they will be paying Rwf20,000 per permit is not very enticing either. Either way, the refugees are caught between a rock and a hard place; they cannot return home just yet and most of them have run out of money. The government has already pulled out all the stops to ease the refugees’ burdens, it is not motor vehicle legislation that can stand in its way in finding a compromise. It can choose to give them a blanket amnesty or simply look the other way; after all, the fiscal benefits of the Rwf20,000 will not even fill a cup.

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EDITORIAL: Burundi refugees: A solution should be found for car owners