Hiiraan Online
Friday, November 06, 2015
DADAAB (HOL) – Somalia’s prime minister has paid a visit to the world’s largest refugee camp in Kenya to meet with refugees from his country where attacks by insurgents and decades of civil war have displaced millions from their homelands.
Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke accompanied by other delegates including ministers and humanitarian workers met hundreds of Somali refugees at the camp in northern Kenya which hosted about 500,000 refugees as of mid-2015 of which 95% Somalis, according to UNHCR.
During his hours-long visit, Mr. Abdirashid’s was briefed about the living condition of his fellow Somalis in the camp where Refugees typically live in tents, made of plastic sheets.
His visit comes as the Kenyan government continues to campaign the repatriation of Somali refugees in the camps due to security concerns since the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabab group fighting in the neighboring Somalia carried out a deadly attack on Garissa university in northern eastern Kenya in which more than 148 people, mostly students were killed.
Despite recent repatriation of some residents, the camps are still enormously overcrowded and contain over three times as many people as there was intended to , according to a journalist travelled with the prime minister to the camp.
In 2013, the Foreign Ministries of Somalia and Kenya and the UNHCR signed a tripartite agreement in Mogadishu paving the way for the voluntary repatriation of Somali nationals living in Dadaab. The prime minister has urged Somalis to return home to rebuild their country.
Hundreds of Somalis have since returned to Somalia with the help of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
However, some of the Somali refugees in the camp accused the Kenyan government of repeatedly intimidating them to leave in a bid fast-track the voluntary repatriation of the refugees.