Melanie Khanna, head of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Chief of UNHCR, gave a statement during The World Conference on Statelessness which was held at The Hague, Netherlands, on 26 -28 June 2019, that the Omani government do not recognise the persons of Omani origin who are stranded in East Africa. Replying to a question which was addressed to her by Habiba Al-Hinai, the OAHR executive director, Khanna said:
“ That is something that seems to come up almost every six months in my ten years on a job which doesn’t go back to the year 2008. They’ve been multiple times that this is come to my attention and where our offices are covering the middle east and north Africa region have rise the issue again and again with the government of Oman, and the answer is pretty clear; The government of Oman no longer considers this population, of Omani descent in Burundi, to be citizen of Oman. When that happens, we always say the 1954 definition of stateless persons, a persons who is not recognised by any state under the operation of its law, is a mixed question of law. In fact we have to look at the law in practice, where government repeatedly says this population of such and such descent are not citizens of our country, that is pretty definitive evidence that they don’t consider the population to be citizens. And there is nothing the UNHCR can do, to compel the government of Oman, to consider this population Omani citizens. Burundi has offered citizenship to people who’ve been on the territory, in some cases, for more than a single generation. People who were born on the territory. Have lived there their entire lives, and my understanding is that our offices in the region are encouraging the community to consider availing itself of that offer”.

This unfortunate news comes while the government of Burundi have decided by next year, to deport all persons reside in its territory without legal documents. While the Burundian government will detain all stateless persons, including Omanis who are stranded in Burundi. OAHR launched the “ Right to Return” campaign, which coincided with its participation in the World Conference on Statelessness. The campaign was launched to help thousands of Omanis who are stranded in East Africa, especially those who are in a critical situation in Burundi.

Al-Hinai, also addressed on the second day of the conference her speech in the panel “ Getting to women’s equal citizenship: what hurts & what works?” Which was organised by Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights and was Moderated by Her Excellency, Annika Markovic, Sweden’s Ambassador to the Netherlands.

OAHR launches “Right to Return” campaign, which coincides with its participation in the World Conference on Statelessness, which will be held in The Hague, Netherlands, on 26 to 28 June 2019.

The campaign was launched to help thousands of Omanis who are stranded in East Africa, as well as in the rest of the world; especially in Zanzibar, Kenya and Burundi, where Omanis have settled for hundreds of years in many East African countries. Omani sultans ruled Zanzibar and its neighbouring countries for hundreds of years until the coup in 1964, which saw the end of the Omani rule in Zanzibar.

Thousands of Omanis emigrated to settle in East Africa before the oil boom, in search for a better life. However, as soon as the coup against the Omani rule in Zanzibar took place, there was a reverse migration back to Oman. As a result, thousands of Omanis returned to their motherland Oman. At that time, soon after Sultan Qaboos took power in 1970, it was possible to return to Oman . Sultan Qaboos called upon the Omani people from all over the world to return to their motherland to contribute in the process of building their country and development. This coincided with the beginning of the oil era. The country was then in urgent need for manpower and competencies.

The Omani government closed the doors of the right to return for Omanis once it reached a state of sufficiency from external expertise and with time, turned its back from accepting the requests of thousands of Omanis who demanded their right to return. Their demands were rejected despite providing documents proving that they were of Omani origin.

During the reign of the Omani sultans in Zanzibar, the freedom of movement between the two sides was open without the need to carry any identity documents. Consequently, after the separation of the two countries, thousands of Omanis were suspended in the East African countries after being denied by the authorities in their motherland Oman.

As a result of this unjustified denial, the Omanis in Burundi have formed a peaceful movement for more than 20 years to demand their right to return. They organized many peaceful protests and demonstrations demanding recognition from the Omani government, to grant them their rights, especially since many of them are stateless, this includes hundreds of women and children. Although these injustices have been submitted to the United Nations, a fair solution has not been reached to this day.

On this platform, the OAHR declares its full support to all stateless persons and stands with the right of Omanis throughout the globe to return to their homeland Oman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFuBNzFU5AI
https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/will-oman-welcome-home-its-stateless-people-in-burundi-1.403387