Monday, March 30, 2009
The refugees' plight has been aggravated by the 2007 closure of the Kenya-Somalia border as authorities turn a blind eye to police corruption and abuses at the frontier, the Human Rights Watch said in a report.
Around 60 000 Somalis crossed into Kenya last year, that is 165 people crossing daily to seek shelter in the overcrowded camps in northeastern Kenya despite the border closure, it added.
This has led to "Kenya police returning asylum seekers and refugees to Somalia in violation of Kenya's fundamental obligations under international and Kenyan refugee law."
It has also caused "serious abuses of Somali asylum seekers and refugees," the New York-based group said in a report entitled: "From Horror to Hopelessness."
"Kenyan police detain the new arrivals, seek bribes - sometimes using threats and violence including sexual violence - and deport back to Somalia those unable to pay," the report said.
Forced returns is a "flagrant violation of international law and has caused Kenyan political authorities to turn a blind eye to police corruption and abuses in the border areas and the camps," the report said.
Kenya shut the border with the war-wrecked Somalia after Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia to oust an Islamist movement to prevent the insurgents from fleeing onto its soil.
It also forced the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to close its refugee transit centre near the border, but allowed it to register nearly 80 000 refugees in 2007 and 2008.
Even then, the refugee camps in Dadaab, which were designed for 90 000 people, are seriously overcrowded and host 255 000 refugees, making them the world's largest refugee camps.
The overcrowding has exacerbated the food, water and healthcare shortages, said the HRW, and new arrivals have been sleeping in the open. The UNHCR estimates the camps could be holding as many as 360 000 refugees by the end of 2009.
"The camps face a situation that is conducive to a public health emergency," the group said, citing an NGO assesment.
In November, the UNHCR, the World Food Programme and the UN's Children Fund (UNICEF) asked Kenya to allocate more land for the growing number of refugees and it has promised land for 50 000 refugees.
The HRW urged Kenya to stop all forced returns of refugees and investigate cases of police corruption and prosecute offenders.
Source: AFP, Mar 30, 2009