Tanzania: Diaspora status debate reignited as minister clarifies legal position
Published: 19/May/2025
Source: The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
In an event organised by Tanzania’s ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Corporation in Dar es Salaam, the minister in charge of the docket, Ambassador Mahmoud Thabit Kombo, discussed a range of issues [….]
.The hot topic that has always lingered was the growing Tanzanian community abroad and their recognition that has been marred by delayed ‘special statuses, aborted bills, and a lot of restrictions the diaspora community allegedly faces when coming back to the country of their birth.
In his response, minister Kombo had to reiterate the government position based on the law strongly. He stated that the law of the land states that any Tanzanian living outside its borders but still maintaining their Tanzanian passport is not a diaspora.
A diaspora is born in Tanzania with a Tanzanian birth certificate, who immigrates to another country and goes through renunciation of their Tanzanian citizenship to acquire another citizenship. If you still hold on to a Tanzanian passport, even if you have lived in another country for 20 years, when you come back, you will still be a Tanzanian, according to Tanzanian law, he stated. At the point of return, you can easily apply for the National Identification card, widely known as the Nida card.
According to government data, fewer than 10,000 Tanzanians living abroad fall under the diaspora community. He dared anyone with contrasting data that can prove him wrong to present it.
“The Tanzanian diaspora community in Italy is just 15 people. I have all the names and passport details,” he said, “Tanzanians who renounced their citizenship and took Italian, I have all their information,” he insisted.
“You might find many Tanzanians congregate when the president visits the country, but most of them still maintain their Tanzanian citizenship, and they are just in that country to earn a living,” he added.
The minister explained that, according to government data, the largest Tanzanian diaspora community is in Oman, most of whom were Arabs born in Tanzania but emigrated to Oman. Oman policies require one to hand over their Tanzanian passport before they give you their citizenship through naturalisation.
Speaking on the statement from Mr Kombo, a Tanzanian lawyer living in the United States, Mr Gabriel Mkama, who has been a member of the Zanzibar Law Society and also served at the Zanzibar Legal Centre, said he doesn’t know the legislation the minister is talking about because no law clearly defines who a diaspora is in Tanzania. Perhaps the minister is referring to internal guidelines and policies developed by the ministry for administrative purposes, but those are not enshrined in the national legislation.
Mr Mkama explained that the Tanzanian constitution doesn’t explicitly address the status of Tanzanians living abroad; it just has the general provisions concerning the rights of citizens.
The specific legal framework that provides further clarity is in the Citizenship Act of 1995. Though the Act doesn’t define who the Tanzanian diaspora is, under section 10 of the Act, it clearly states that a Tanzanian living abroad who acquires another nationality automatically loses Tanzanian citizenship.
Read further: https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/diaspora/diaspora-status-debate-reignited-as-minister-clarifies-legal-position-5047668