Djibouti's Ali Addeh and Holl-Holl camps are home to an estimated 25,000
refugees as well as a host of challenges for government officials and
international organisations.
The situation for refugees in Djibouti remains precarious. Lack of drinking
water, recurring droughts, malnutrition and food shortages make their
integration process difficult, according to Aden Hassan of the Ministry of
Interior's National Office for the Assistance of Refugees and Displaced
Persons (ONARS), which manages the camps.
The Ali Addeh refugee camp, currently the largest refugee camp in Djibouti,
opened its doors in 1991 after Somalia's central government collapsed. It
was built to accommodate 7,000 refugees, but currently holds about 20,000.
By December 2013, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
estimates there will be more than 30,000 refugees living in Djibouti.
In an effort to relieve the congestion, UNHCR and ONARS asked the government
to re-open the Holl-Holl camp, which closed in 2006. It re-opened in June
2012 and now hosts more than 1,000 refugees.
Although some refugees in Djibouti say they want to return home once their
countries stabilise, many would prefer to relocate to a third country. So
far this year, UNHCR has helped 225 refugees relocate to the United States,
Sweden, Canada and other countries, up from 117 in 2011.
About 90% of the country's refugees are from Somalia with the remaining
coming mostly from Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Refugees recount difficult living conditions in camps
Abdi Maalin, a Somali refugee in his 30s, has been staying at the Ali Addeh
camp for five years. He told Sabahi that even though al-Shabaab has been
weakened, Somalia is still unsafe and he hopes to benefit from the
relocation programme.
"Today, I am unable to continue my university studies and I cannot work in
Djibouti because I do not have any papers," Maalin said. He said all the
adults in the camp suffer from unemployment and a lack of income-generating
activities.
Omar Idleh, an adviser at the Ministry of the Interior, said there is a need
to increase the number of immigrant reception centres and to train mobile
units to better deal with immigrants in distress.
"Our country faces a rising tide of migrants flooding in from the border
regions of our immediate neighbours in an attempt to reach the Arab
peninsula, which they see as an El Dorado, even though in some cases it may
cost them their lives," Idleh told Sabahi.
"Their presence on our soil is a heavy burden that brings its share of
pollution, deterioration and squalor affecting the safety and environment of
the whole country," he said.
Amina Youssouf, 42, a widow and mother of three who has spent 10 years in
Ali Addeh camp, said she will relocate to Canada in 2013.
"Today, I have no one in Somalia," she told Sabahi. "My loved ones are gone
or have left the country. So why risk my life and those of my kids by going
back?"
She said life in the refugee camps has been a struggle beyond the lack of
electricity and water shortages. "My children have had no education because
the primary school in Holl-Holl was just built in September and the one in
Ali Addeh is only four years old," she said.
Even if there had been schools, she said, she did not have the necessary
identity papers to enrol her children.
"It was only in May that the UN Children's Fund introduced birth
certificates for newborn babies, and the prefecture in Ali-Sabieh, which
covers the two refugee camps, introduced birth certificates for refugee
children aged less than four months, with additional rules to cover those
over four months old," she said.
Illegal immigration also a hazard
Djibouti's location on the Red Sea and proximity to the Middle East also
makes illegal immigration a main concern for Djiboutian authorities.
Although Djiboutian law allows refugees to work in the country, the high
unemployment rate and the local food crisis do not favour integration, ONARS
Deputy Director Aden Hassan told Sabahi. "It is mostly young people and
long-term refugees who turn to illegal immigration because of lack of
training and education and because of difficult living conditions."
In August, UNHCR reported that the flow of refugees and migrants from the
Horn of Africa to Yemen hit a record total of more than 63,800 in the first
seven months of 2012, a 30% increase from the previous record in 2011, when
a total of 48,700 refugees crossed.
One in six refugees who crossed were Somali while most others were
Ethiopian. The vast majority of refugees cross from the Djiboutian port town
of Obock, UNHCR said, with the remainder coming from the Somaliland and
Puntland regions of Somalia.
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Received on Wed Nov 21 2012 - 10:28:45 EST
