Dadaab is the largest refugee camp in the world that is home to more than 300,000 refugees, mostly from Somalia.
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Volway said the worldwide community needs to look for longer term solutions to the refugee crisis in Kenya and reconsider the amount of refugees that third countries, such as Canada are accepting.
“In the case of the attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, and the Garissa attack in northeast Kenya past year, Somali nationals have been charged with those offenses, but they are known to have come in directly from Somalia, and were not registered refugees”, Simpson explained.
Pressure has been mounting on Kenya to rescind its decision to close the Daadab and Kakuma refugee camps. The agency said in a statement that closing the camp would have “devastating consequences”.
Garissa Governor Nathif Jama has slammed the national government’s decision to close refugee camps and forcibly repatriate all refugees. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that the U.N.is calling on Kenya’s government to avoid any action that is at odds with its worldwide obligations.
Last week Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Stephane Dion and Minister of International Development Marie-Claude Bibeau added their voices to growing international concern over the fate of refugees hosted by Kenya.
Human Rights Watch senior refugee researcher Gerry Simpson says refugees are not the source of security threats in Kenya. But on Wednesday Nkaissery said Kakuma will not be closed because it does not present a security risk. Refugees are generally very hostile to al-Shabaab, they see Dadaab as their only home, and several camp leaders have been killedwhile volunteering alongside Kenyan police and UNHCR to protect the settlement.
“There’s not a single shred of evidence that any registered Somali refugees in Kenya have been behind any attacks in Kenya”, he was quoted as saying.
“We remind the government that it bears responsibility to prioritise humanitarian rights in accordance with its worldwide and national laws”. He said one option would be to relocate the camps. The MPs argued that some of the refugees had intermarried with the local population and on that basis alone, they qualified to be Kenyan citizens.
“In Lebanon what we are hearing from local communities was that Syrian refugees were getting these food carts. and there were hungry Lebanese right next to them who were getting nothing”.
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“It could lead to the involuntary return of thousands of refugees to Somalia and other countries of origin, where their lives may still be in danger”. I fully support the repatriation of refugees.
