Thursday, March 26, 2009

UN hits snag as Kenya directs Somali refugees be relocated

A plan to create a refugee camp on 6,000-acre land in Garissa to accommodate Somalis fleeing the war-torn country faces headwinds as political leadership in northern Kenya are divided over the issue.

Consequently, the government has asked the UN to relocate Somali refugees from Dadaab near the Kenya/Somalia border to Kakuma in Turkana, over 1,000km away.

According to sources, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Immigration and Registration of Persons, wrote to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Kenya office directing the refugees be spirited away to Kakuma refugee camp that currently holds 50,900 runaways.

Kenya argues the refugees are engaged in crime even as they destruct the Dadaab environment by cutting down wood for fuel.

The Dadaaab complex refugee camps (Dagahaley, Ifo and Lagadera), about 80 km east of the Kenya/Somalia border are full, holding more than twice their capacity.

Kenya has closed its border with Somalia to block any spillover of the 20-year civil strife yet about 12,000 Somali refugees cross into the country each month, pushed out of their homes by battles between Al Shabaab Islamic militia and the government.

Take elsewhere

Whereas some leaders, among them Fafi MP Adan Sugow, who is also assistant minister for Public Service, support plan to create a new camp in Fafi situated dozens of kilometres from Dadaab, others, including Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim, have asked the refugees be taken elsewhere.

The problem arises out of a misunderstanding between Fafi and Lagadera leaders over the possible benefits of hosting a new refugee camp. Lagadera leaders say Ifo camp, created in 1991, has not benefited the local community.

The UNHCR Kenya office spokesperson, Mr Emmanuel Nyabera, confirmed that indeed, his office had received the government communication directing the refuges be relocated to Kakuma, one of the world’s oldest camps created to mainly accommodate Sudanese fleeing civil war in their country.

Apart from Sudanese, now Kakuma camp also holds refugees from Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia, DR Congo and Burundi.

The government’s directive means the UN should transfer 100,000 Somalis that entered Kenya last year. In addition, it will make daily trips to transport those crossing into Kenya through the Liboi border point – about 12,000 refugees a month.

The UN is in a spin following the development. The proposed relocation would be a logistical nightmare because it would involve transporting thousands who have entered Kenya since last year, it says.

“Apart from being extremely expensive, the move faces myriad challenges including construction of shelter and related amenities,” says Mr Nyabera.

Apart from the one-off transport cost estimated at $25 million (Sh2 billion), the UN refugee body will undertake frequent trips for the 12,000 new refugees who flee Somalia to Kenya every month. And in case peace returns to Somalia eventually, repatriating them from a far place as Kakuma will be very costly, the UN says.

Notwithstanding the transport costs, the agency reportedly seeks $100 million (about Sh7.6 billion) to take care of the additional refugees that have been flocking to the camp since the beginning of last year.

Dadaab is overwhelmed, according to Liz Ahua, the UNHCR country representative. The three camps have a capacity of 90,000 yet they are holding 230,000 refugees.

“We are risking health and medical complications if they (refugees) continue to live like this,” she once told this writer.

The UN wants Kenya to allocate it land to build further refugee camps in northern Kenya to accommodate a deluge of refugees fleeing the fighting between the Somali government and the Al Shabab militants seeking to oust it.

The refugee agency had identified the land in Garissa, close to the Kenya/Somalia border. According to sources, the North Eastern provincial administration has frustrated the plan.

The UNHCR office in Kenya had already identified and surveyed the chunk in Jarajilia Division, Fafi Constituency. “But the provincial administration said we cannot have the 6,000 acres,” said a source.

“We identified and surveyed the area but things are not moving the way we had anticipated. There is a big problem somewhere. We are not happy with the development,” said Mr Sugow.

“The UN approached us and we cooperated (as a community) in Fafi,” the MP added.

Yet, it would appear, some leaders in Garissa are hardly comfortable with new refugee camps.

“They (refugees) have deforested the area and attracted people to the camps,” says Aden Degow, the personal assistant to the Lagdera MP Farah Maalim. “And because the refugees are also rearing livestock, there has been heightened conflict with the locals over the control of pasture.”

He says neighbouring Fafi Constituency leadership cannot unilaterally decide to give out land. “The Fafi leaders) want to create animosity. They want to go alone without involving us. This is likely to create a conflict,” says Degow. But Mr Sugow says the Fafi community has agreed to have a new refugee camp.

“As Fafi, we have a right to accept or decline to give land (for the creation of a new camp in the constituency). We are interested that whatever commensurate benefit (associated with hosting a refugee) comes to the constituency.”

Unless the issue is resolved fast, the Somalia refugees will find their way into villages or travel all the way to Nairobi.

“Of course there is the risk that they will get involved in vices if they fail to register as refugees and ultimately get UN protection. This is not safe for Kenya,” Mr Sugow says.

Contacted last week, a source within the North Eastern Provincial Commissioner’s office, Garissa, discounted claims to the effect that his administration was stonewalling UN’s quest for a new camp.

It was the US ambassador Michael Ranneberger who first revealed about the possibility of creating a new camp in northern Kenya, during his visit the Garissa last November.

But pressed further by this writer to name the proposed area, the envoy responded: “A local MP has agreed to give land. Discussions are ongoing, so I am not going to mention the name until all is complete.”

Yet twist and turns over the creation of a new camp emerge at a time the UN is anticipating a deluge of Somali runaways occasioned by the resignation of Somalia President Abdullahi

Yusuf and the proposed exit of Ethiopian forces that propped his shaky government. More than 120,000 Somali refugees crossed into Kenya in 2008, according to Nyaber.

Source: Nation

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