The Situation for Somali Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Kenya Worsens
In the last week of March 2009, at least 92 Somalis were deported from Kenya back to war torn Somalia. Although the UNHCR filed a formal complaint, the government of Kenya denied that any of those returned had valid refugee claims. In the context of clashes between Islamist insurgents and Somali government forces in Somalia, the Kenyan government see this influx as a national security issue.
A number of human rights organisations, including the Refugee Consortium of Kenya and Human Rights Watch have remarked that Somali asylum seekers are increasingly subject to human rights abuses, the narrowing of refugee protection and refoulement (for more information on the background to the crisis in Somalia, see “Somalia: A Humanitarian Crisis Disregarded”).
It appears clear Kenya has been engaging in refoulement with respect to this population. Human Rights Watch and UNHCR argue that while known cases put the number of Somalis deported back to their country in the hundreds, there are undoubtedly far more unreported cases that could bring the number into the thousands. According to UNHCR, government officials in Kenya have confirmed that the police and military are under instruction to return Somali asylum seekers to their country. One example of such refoulement was the subject of a public complaint by UNHCR:
...one woman and two men – were among several Somalis whose vehicle was intercepted by the border police as it entered Kenyan territory on 16 January. According to border officials, the driver refused instructions to stop and the police opened fire, wounding three passengers. The injured were taken from Liboi to Dadaab, some 90 km away, to receive medical attention . . . on 21 January, according to hospital officials, six policemen turned up at the Dadaab Health Centre, where the three asylum seekers were undergoing medical treatment for their bullet wounds, ordered them into a police van and drove them to the border. Later in the day, the authorities confirmed that they had been returned to Somalia.
The Refugee Consortium of Kenya pointed out, in its response to the incident, that the government of Kenya is obligated to uphold the principle of non-refoulement, not only as a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, but also under Section 18 of its own Refugees Act 2006. They further pointed out that the Act provides for registration of new arrivals, and that Somalis benefit, moreover, from “prima facie status as per section 3 (2) of the Refugees Act of Kenya.”
Kenya closed its border with Somalia on 3 January 2007, maintaining this was necessary for national security reasons. The government of Kenya clearly has a right to be concerned about its own security in the context of the violence in Somalia. The Islamist character of the insurgency and the identification of some Somali armed groups as targets in the “war on terror” further intensify the pressures on the government of Kenya to show that it is controlling population flows. The Refugee Consortium of Kenya has argued that this measure, however, is counter-productive. They argue that reopening the border will increase the government’s capacity to ensure security by giving them the opportunity to monitor and control access.
The Kenyan government also closed the UNHCR transit office on the border in Liboi, where Somali refugees were prior to this able to register and attain refugee status immediately upon entering the country. With the closure of the office, asylum seekers cannot have their protection needs assessed, nor can they be issued with documents attesting to their status as refugees or asylum seekers. Without such documentation, asylum seekers are more vulnerable to police abuse, harassment or deportation. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Kenya to allow all Somali asylum seekers passage into Kenya and recommended that the UNHCR transit office in Liboi be re-opened.
The border closure has exacerbated the already precarious situation for Somali asylum seekers as they now are forced to attempt to sneak into Kenya and reach the Dadaab refugee camp complex – the principle reception area for Somalis in the country’s remote northeast clandestinely. Many are forced to rely on “people smugglers”. Along the journey to Dadaab, Somali asylum seekers are vulnerable to extortion in the form of bribery, detention, violence, and even refoulement.
In a HRW interview at the Hagadera camp, the largest of the three refugee settlements that make up the Dadaab camp complex, a 17 year-old girl recounted her story. She was travelling to the Hagadera camp with 20 other Somali asylum seekers when Kenyan police detained them at Gadudey for 10 days. Members of her clan in Somalia living in the Hagadera camp had to pay the police a bribe of 300 dollars for them to be released. The young Somali girl recounts to HRW what the Kenyan police did to her on the eighth day of her detention:
I left the cell to go to the toilet but two policemen stopped me and told me to go into a room and lie down. One of the men held down my arms and the other raped me. I was so scared that I couldn’t even shout but then the second man wanted to rape me and I started to scream. The first one tried to choke me but I struggled and they let me go. They left the room, locked the door and left me alone for one hour. Then they took me back to the cell. The others asked me where I had been but I could not tell them. I was too ashamed. This is the first time I have talked about it.
In a recent report “From Horror to Hopelessness,” HRW called for the Kenyan government to put an end to police brutalities and hold those policemen committing human rights abuses against Somali asylum seekers accountable for their actions. HRW has recommended police and military be trained in the rights of Somali asylum seekers and refugees.
Despite the Kenyan government’s efforts to keep Somalis out of their country through both the border closure and refoulement, 80,000 Somalis entered during 2007 and 2008.
Should the Somali asylum seekers be so lucky as to make their way into Dadaab, the situation is bleak. Although UNHCR has continued to register as many Somalis as possible, granting them refugee status, the process is slow, and resources are limited. Only those registered are given rations, so many families go without food and water for weeks.
According to UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond, since the beginning of 2009 over 20,000 Somali refugees have registered in Dadaab. The camp complex was built to accommodate 90,000 people, but now is home to an estimated 261,000, “making the Dadaab complex one of the world's oldest, biggest and most congested refugee sites” according to Redmond. The increased influx of refugees has placed strains upon already limited resources. Basic necessities such as food and water are scarce; most are receiving well below the internationally agreed standards of water and the level of malnutrition has reached 13 percent, severely affecting children under five. Even though the World Food Programme contends that each registered refugee is given an adequate amount of food daily, HRW estimates that in actuality most people have much less, as registered refugees often share their food with unregistered arrivals. In addition, refugees may trade food rations to acquire other basic items to use as fuel and shelter. HRW provided the following account of the selflessness of one woman who was registered along with her seven children living in the camp and who shared her plot with two other unregistered women and their six children:
I have one small hut with one room, where the nine younger children sleep. There is not enough room for the rest of us. So the older four children and the three of us, the mothers, we sleep under [the] sky at night. Because they are not registered, they cannot get food and the other refugees don’t want them to take water. So I share everything I have with them, including food and water.
Poor sanitation and lack of healthcare resources have caused many to declare the situation in Dadaab a national health emergency. Earlier this year UNHCR reported a cholera outbreak in Hagadera. There were 14 known cases, as of 19 February 2009. This is undoubtedly attributed to overcrowding and poor sanitation.
According to the recent HRW report, the 35,144 new refugees who came to Dadaab between 20 August 2008 and 28 February 2009 have had to join settled refugees on their allocated plots of land, as no new land is available to distribute. There is a serious lack of shelter in the Dadaab camp complex. As the violence in Somalia continues with no sign of stopping in the near future, HRW estimates the number of people in the Dadaab camps to reach 300,000 by the end of the year, while UNHCR estimates the number to be 360,000. Additional land for Somali refugees is crucial in order to relieve congestion already problematic in Dadaab, as well as make room for the expected new arrivals.
According to the Dadaab District Officer Evans Kyule, quoted in Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper:
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).
UNHCR has proposed a plan to deal with the current situation entitled Emergency Assistance Programme for Somali Refugees in Dadaab Kenya. The plan entails bridging operational gaps and meeting the needs of the Somali refugee population in the Dadaab camps, the construction of two new camps designed to accommodate between 40,000 and 60,000 people each, and the preparation of emergency assistance for the predicted 120,000 Somali asylum seekers expected over the course of this year.
UNHCR has already begun working with the Kenyan government to create a new refugee camp in north eastern Kenya. Deputy High Commissioner Craig Johnstone met with Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga in early February, to negotiate a solution. Kenya is also considering allocating land in Fafi, in the south of Dadaab, estimated to provide refuge for approximately 50,000. However, UNHCR has been encountering difficulties negotiating the terms with the existing local community, delaying the creation of the new refugee camp. In order to implement UNHCR’s plan, it is working with the Kenyan government’s Department of Refugee Affairs, as well as several non-governmental organizations including CARE Kenya, the National Council of Churches in Kenya, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Save the Children. With 120,000 additional refugees expected in 2009, it is urgent that these logistical and protection problems be addressed.