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Nothing to Go Back to – From Kenya’s Vast Refugee Camp

HRW: Kenya is home to the world’s largest refugee camp, Dadaab, which provides shelter to 360,000 mostly Somali refugees. In May 2016, Kenya’s government disbanded its department responsible for refugees and announced plans to repatriate Somalis and close Dadaab. Human Rights Watch’s Birgit Schwarz talks with Somalia researcher Laetitia Bader about the difficult and desperate lives of some Somalis in Dadaab, where even food is sometimes scarce, and about why returning them to the dangers of Somalia is simply not an option.

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 How did Dadaab become the world’s largest refugee camp?

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An aerial view shows makeshift shelters at the Dagahaley camp in Dadaab, near the Kenya-Somalia border in Garissa County, Kenya. Photo taken April 2011. © 2011 Reuters

The camp, in the northeastern Kenya desert not far from the Somalia border, was set up in the early 90’s when the Somali state collapsed. It has been a refuge for generations of Somalis fleeing conflict in their own country. Initially they fled fighting between clans, which led to massive displacement and killings of civilians. Over the last 10 years, civilians have primarily been fleeing the repressive and abusive rule of the Islamist armed group Al-Shabab, which continues to control large parts of Somalia, particularly rural areas. Then, five years ago, famine hit Somalia, and a new wave of people arrived in Dadaab, swelling the numbers in the camp further.

At the moment, about 360,000 people live in the camp. The majority are Somalis, but there are also many Ethiopians and South Sudanese who have arrived over the years, seeking refuge from political persecution and conflict.

How well have these refugees been integrated into Kenyan society?

While Kenya has welcomed an enormous number of refugees, the government has been less than willing to integrate these communities. In fact, Kenya has denied refugees their right to free movement. To leave the camp, they needed permission from the Department of Refugee Affairs, which the government just disbanded, claiming that its days of hosting refugees are over. Some of the more established communities have shops and networks of traders who come into the camps. They sell goods or run small cooking places in the camp or spaces where people can come and watch football in the evenings. However, many other camp residents don’t have access to these networks. Those who arrived during the famine in 2011 have virtually nothing and depend on food rations. They cannot leave the camps and can’t seek employment. The rations are their only means of survival.

What struck you the most about the refugees’ plight when you visited the camp in April?

The desperation of these people who fled conflict or hunger and who now feel they may be forced to return to Somalia. Since the World Food Programme cut rations by up to a third for larger households earlier this year, due to limited funding, several families told me they run out of food halfway through the month and some said they have to beg for food. Others are trying to find ways to make a little bit of money on the side by washing clothes for other families in the camp.

This situation is especially difficult for the newcomers, who are not very well-connected in the camps and struggle to even find menial jobs to make up for the ration cuts. They feel caught between a rock and a hard place. Many said: If we are going to die of hunger, we’d rather die at home. But they often lost their goats or their cattle, or had to stop farming because of attacks and harsh taxes by Al-Shabab. They have nothing to start with or to go back to. And they would be going back to areas that the United Nations refugee agency says are dangerous, including places where Al-Shabab is still present or in control.

The Kenyan government seems determined to close the camp and send back the Somali refugees. Is such a move at all feasible and in line with international law?

Any plan that would force Somalis – or other refugees – to return to areas that are not safe would be a serious violation of international refugee law and Kenyan law. We continue to document serious abuses against civilians in many hot spots across south and central Somalia. There are increasing reports of forced recruitment of child soldiers in Al-Shabab-controlled areas. Also, at least 1.1 million people are internally displaced inside Somalia.

Read more: Nothing to Go Back toFrom Kenya’s Vast Refugee Camp

Source: HRW

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