The Dadaab satellite camps – Ifo, Hagadera and Dagahaley – were created in 1991 to accommodate those fleeing fighting following the ousting of strongman Siad Barre. Barre’s fall created a void which clan warlords have been fighting to fill. The camps hold 230,000 refugees against their capacity of 90,000.
The UN agency says it needs land to create new camps to accommodate the influx. In addition, it requires $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.
The surge in refugees has heaped pressure on resource already stretched to the limit. The local community is feeling the heat.
While the political leadership in Fafi constituency (which hosts Hagadera, one of the satellite camps) is ready to host new refugee camps, Lagdera constituency (which accommodates Ifo refugee camp) has placed conditions for any further development.
Lagdera leaders are worried that another camp would further diminish the grazing ground for the pastoral community. Indeed, even the government concedes all is not well in Dadaab.
“The camps have spilled onto the villages, as refugees move out to survive” says Dadaab District Officer Evans Kyule. “There are negotiations for a fourth camp. We need to move (the extra refugees) to another area.”
He says the camps have spilt onto villages. “There are now makeshift camps built by refugees themselves who have no place to settle. These people have been forced to go out of the camps in order to survive. And this raises the question of security. We are looking at the possibility of a fourth camp. But locals have to agree (to cede the land),” says Mr Kyule.
Fafi MP Adan Sugow is worried that refugees could plunge into crimes if they fail to be registered and protected as refugees.
“If we fail to give them the refugee status, they are likely to infiltrate villages, even travel to Eastleigh in Nairobi, and involve in vices that compromise security,” he says.
Source: VOA
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