Kenya orders refugees back to camps
2012-12-18 12:12
Nairobi - Tens of thousands of refugees living in urban
areas in Kenya must return to remote and overcrowded camps, the government said
on Tuesday, demanding all aid be cut off outside the camps.
"All asylum seekers and refugees from Somalia should
report to Dadaab refugee camps, while asylum seekers from other countries
should report to Kakuma refugee camp," an official statement printed in
national newspapers read.
The order follows a spate of attacks in Kenya's north-eastern
Somali regions as well as in the capital Nairobi, with several blasts in the
largely ethnic Somali district of Eastleigh.
The attacks are regularly blamed on members or sympathisers
of Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab fighters, although they have made no claim
to the series of blasts, which escalated after Kenyan troops invaded Somalia
last year.
Police have since launched a tough crackdown focusing
largely on refugees, including mass arrests sweeping up young men of Somali
origin suspected of being connected to the attackers.
The two camps - Dadaab in Kenya's arid northeast, the
world's largest refugee camp complex, and Kakuma, in the remote northwest - are
already beyond their capacity.
Over 33 600 Somali refugees live in Nairobi alone, according
to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, while Kenya hosts refugees from nine
nations in total.
Registration centres
"The government of Kenya has decided to stop reception,
registration and close down all registration centres in the urban areas with
immediate effect," read the statement from Badu Katelo, acting
commissioner for refugee affairs.
"UNHCR and other partners serving refugees are asked to
stop providing direct services to asylum seekers and refugees in the urban
areas and transfer the same services to the refugee camps," the order
added.
Dadaab, around a 100km from the restive border with Somalia,
hosts over 468 700 mainly Somali refugees, but is already full to capacity.
Kakuma, around a 100km from the border with South Sudan,
hosts over 103,600 refugees, almost half of whom are Somalis, the rest largely
being made up of Sudanese or South Sudanese.
UNHCR warned last month that the camp has surpassed its
original capacity of 100 000.
