KENYA-SOMALIA: No consensus on way ahead for world's biggest refugee camp
NAIROBI, 15 June 2012 (IRIN) - Key stakeholders meeting on 14 June to
discuss the future of Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya acknowledge that
there are tough choices ahead, but no agreed way forward.
The panel discussion, entitled "Dadaab 20 years on: what next?", was
organized by NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Nairobi, and included
government officials, UN agencies, NGOs and representatives from Dadaab's
refugee community.
Dadaab, originally built to house 90,000 refugees, currently hosts close to
500,000; management of the camp was handed over to the UN Refugee Agency
(UNHCR) in the early 1990s. Stakeholders say with more refugees arriving
daily, it is becoming increasingly difficult to run: It now has a bigger
population than Nakuru, Kenya's fourth largest city, and is the biggest
refugee camp in the world.
The panel discussed possible alternatives to Dadaab, including persuading
the international community to allow more refugees to resettle abroad,
relocating refugees to safer areas in smaller camps, and creating ways for
the refugees to become more self-reliant.
"A refugee camp is not a long-term solution," Elena Velilla, MSF Kenya
country representative, said in a
<
http://www.msf.org/msf/articles/2012/06/dadaab-the-camps-cannot-go-on.cfm>
statement. "Thousands of vulnerable people have already suffered too much.
In a safe haven, health and dignity should be guaranteed. As long as no
action is taken, the Somali refugees will continue to pay the price…
"The solution is of course political - it's a very political question", she
told IRIN after the event. "We are humanitarians - we can only question what
we are doing."
Experts like Torben Bruhn, regional health coordinator for the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, spoke of "donor fatigue"
- amidst deteriorating security, overstretched services and what Kellie
Leeson, country director of NGO International Rescue Committee, describes as
"a constant struggle... to make sure people remain healthy".
Returning home?
Kenyan politicians have persistently made calls for Dadaab's largely Somali
population to be resettled inside Somalia. "Kenya can no longer continue
carrying the burden", said President Kibaki at this year's London conference
on Somalia in February.
Badu Katelo, Kenya's commissioner for refugee affairs at the Ministry of
State for Immigration and Registration of Persons, asked the international
community to give greater assistance to the Kenyan government in hosting the
refugees. He said Dadaab would be restructured into smaller units with a
ring road around it, adding that security was a key concern, particularly
with elections looming.
While Katelo said the best solution was for the refugees to return home, he
likened sending Somalis back after 20 years while their country remained
insecure to "eating a whole cow but being unable to eat the tail". "The
return we are talking about is not a forced return," he said.
"The refugees who are the most educated will be the first ones to return
home," said the IRC's Leeson, who has witnessed repatriation in Sudan. "We
need to make sure refugees get educated so they can contribute now and in
the future", she said, advocating that the government take advantage of what
refugees could contribute to Kenya.
Integration
Bare Osman Abdi, the Dagahaley Youth vice-chair, described the camp as an
"open prison" for many, some of whom have not left since arriving 20 years
ago. "We believe the Somalis' case has been forgotten," he said, appealing
to the government to review the employment act that prevents Somali refugees
from working in Kenya.
Non-state actors at the meeting, including UNHCR and MSF, publicly called on
Kenya to consider local integration for refugees - an integration that would
involve granting some refugees Kenyan citizenship.
Integration is one of the central points of disagreement between state and
non-state actors in the Dadaab debate. Deputy Speaker of Parliament Farah
Maalim, an ethnic Somali, said integrating 400,000 Somalis into Kenya would
not be a shrewd move for any politician hoping for election success, but was
adamant that, given the opportunity, the Somali population living in Kenya
would be self-sufficient.
Maalim described a situation in Zambia where refugees were given the tools
to produce their own food and helped sustain the national granary. "Yes, we
could have done it differently", he said.
Abel Jeru Mbillinyi, UNHCR deputy country representative in Kenya, said he
believed there were Somali refugees who had the right to claim Kenyan
citizenship. "How many are Kenyan? And if they are Kenyan, what way do we
have of helping them?" he asked. "In the long term, the government can take
part in absorbing citizens to Kenya," he said, describing the alternative
option of voluntary repatriation as "becoming a bit illusive".
jh/kr/cb
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Received on Fri Jun 15 2012 - 11:30:04 EDT
