NAIROBI, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Kenyan authorities deported 18 Somalis to Mogadishu on Tuesday and were expected to deport 32 more who said they were fleeing fighting in the lawless Somali capital, police and a Muslim group said.
The group has been detained at Kenya's main Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for a week after the government denied their request for asylum.
"Those who have been given boarding passes are 18. They are being bundled into an aircraft by the police and some are resisting on the runway," Al-Amin Kimathi, head of the Muslim Human Rights Forum, told Reuters.
A police officer at the airport who did not want to be named said the asylum seekers had been deported without much trouble. Since Somalia descended into anarchy in 1991, Kenya has dealt with enormous inflows of Somali refugees seeking asylum, legally or illegally.
Fighting between suspected Islamist-led insurgents and Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian allies has driven tens of thousands of Somalis from their homes this year.
Kimathi accused the Kenya government of violating local laws and international human rights conventions by deporting the group.
"These people are escaping war in Mogadishu, they are being sent to certain death," he said.
Kenya closed its borders with its neighbour in January after Ethiopian and Somali troops routed a group of hardline Islamists from Mogadishu after a two-week war.
Kenyan Muslims complained that the government had illegally ignored the rights of Muslims on the grounds of counter-terrorism.
The government said it was preventing dangerous people and illegal immigrants from entering the country across the border, where violence is common.
Late on Monday, three Somali gunmen attacked the Kenyan border town of Mandera, killing one soldier and wounding two others, witnesses said. Four Somali civilians were also killed in the ensuing gun battle, and seven wounded they said.
"Fighting between the Somali militias and the Kenyan army took place somewhere less than a kilometre (half a mile) away from the Kenyan customs house," Somali elder Bishar Mohamed told Reuters by telephone.
About 1,600 Ugandan soldiers have been in the Mogadishu since March to support the fragile interim government, Somalia's 14th attempt at central government since 1991.
African countries have pledged to send an 8,000-strong force to help but no other countries have sent troops yet.
On Tuesday Burundi said a battalion of 825 soldiers due to leave for Somalia by the end of the day had been delayed until an agreement between the government and AU was signed.
"The document defines among other things the tasks of the troops, the salary issue and risk allowances to be paid to the troops in case of accident," said army spokesman Adolphe Manirakiza. "The troops can not leave unless this memorandum is signed." (Reporting by Wangui Kanina in Nairobi, Sahra Abdi Ahmed in Kismayu and Patrick Nduwimana in Bujumbura, Editing by Bryson Hull)
SOURCE: Reuters, November 20, 2007