Kenya has been in the run to completely close the Daadab refugee camp for close to ten years now but the move has received massive obstruction from Human rights groups and even the UNHCR has been pulled into the matter.
As it stands now, it’s next to impossible that it is going to work a Kenya has not proved to the world their foundation onto which they want the camp closed.
The Kenyan government should abandon a renewed push to close the enormous Dadaab refugee camp, the Human Rights Watch has said.
An Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch Otsieno Namwaya said the move to close the camp threatens the rights and safety of 250,000 people.
These are mostly Somali refugees and asylum seekers, whose future is now in limbo, he said.
“Kenya should abandon plans to close the camp and instead uphold its commitment to protect refugees it has hosted for three decades,” Namwaya said.
Namwaya said the authorities should ensure that any refugee returns are voluntary, humane, and based on reliable information about the security situation in Somalia.”
On February 12, Kenyan authorities, citing security concerns, sent a note to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees about plans to close Dadaab refugee camp.
According to Namwaya, the note instructed UNHCR “to expedite relocation of the refugees and asylum-seekers residing therein.”
The internal document says that between December 2014 and the end of 2018, UNHCR had helped the government return 82,840 refugees to Somalia under a voluntary repatriation program.
But the number of returnees dropped to just 7,543 in 2018 as compared with 33,792 in 2016 and 35,409 in 2017.
Most of those who returned in 2016 and 2017 were refugees who had fled Somalia in the aftermath of severe drought in 2011.
On February 28, Namway said the leaked document said that UNHCR responded saying Kenya’s options include voluntary repatriation of refugees to countries of origin.
This is not the first time Kenya has announced plans to close Dadaab.
On May 6, 2016, Interior PS Karanja Kibicho announced that the government would no longer host refugees and was disbanding its Department of Refugee Affairs.
In 2017, the High Court ordered a halt to plans to close Dadaab and ruled that any such plans were unconstitutional and violated Kenya’s international obligations.
“Despite the government’s frequent statements that Somali refugees in Kenya are responsible for Kenya’s insecurity, officials have never provided evidence linking Somali refugees to any terrorist attacks in Kenya, ” he said.
“Many Somali refugees are themselves victims of violence, from which they fled to seek protection,” Namwaya said.
“Forcing them to go back to face violence or persecution would be inhumane and a violation of Kenya’s legal obligations.”
