HRW states: “Refoulement occurs not only when a refugee is directly rejected or expelled, but also where indirect pressure on individuals is so intense that it leads them to believe that they have no practical option but to return to a country where they face serious risk of persecution or threats to their lives and safety”.
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“The Kenyan authorities are not giving Somali refugees a real choice between staying and leaving”, said Bill Frelick, the head of HRW’s refugee program.
Residents of the world’s largest refugee camp are technically being returned by force to conflict zones in a major contravention of worldwide law, a rights group has argued.
This violated the 1951 worldwide Refugee Convention, the report said.
The repatriation of Somali refugees from Kenya’s Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, breaks global standards as many returns are motivated by fear, a Human Rights Watch report said Thursday.
The pattern is also being repeated in Pakistan, where HRW says the government is intimidating tens of thousands of Afghan refugees into returning home.
“Many refugees. say they have agreed to return home because they fear Kenya will force them out if they stay”, said HRW after interviewing around 100 refugees at the camp. “In fact, the Kenyan government has been working more closely with us”, said Mr Mwencha in reply to claims of forceful repatriation by Voice of America.
“Newly arrived Somali asylum seekers and refugees who were not able to re-establish themselves in Somalia are being denied access to refugee registration or asylum procedures in Dadaab, leaving them with no legal status and food rations”, the report stated.
“This situation could increase radicalization and it will make it worse for Kenya and other African countries who are already reeling from the effects of terrorism”, Mr Namwaya added.
A good number are making their way back home, mostly for the fear of being forced out. The summit will begin on September 19.
The Dadaab camp in Kenya hosts more than 300,000 Somalis.
Nairobi has taken a hardline position, claiming Dadaab acts as a terrorist training ground for Shabaab Islamists, and has publicly and repeatedly said all the Somali refugees would be removed from the country by the end of the year.
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On Wednesday, only two cargo planes went to Mogadishu due to lack of sufficient supplies.
