By Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

Background

Dadaab’s five refugee camps in eastern Kenya are the largest such complex in the world. They were set up in 1991 to provide a temporary safe haven to some 90,000 Somalis fleeing the country’s civil war. In 2011, a drought hit east Africa and the camps soon hosted over 440,000 refugees. Today, Dadaab’s camps are home to about 280,000 refugees, the majority from Somalia.

In November 2013, UNHCR and the Kenyan and Somali governments signed an agreement for the voluntary return of Somali refugees from Kenya. The Tripartite Agreement was based on international law, and created a framework in which returns were to be organized. The programme started slowly, with 2014 seeing 485 returns, and a further 5,616 in 2015, initially only to 3 areas of Somalia designated as safe. The scale up of the support package generated more interest in return, but faced donor funding shortages.

A ministerial pledging conference on Somali refugees was held in Brussels in October 2015, hosted by UNHCR with the Kenyan and Somali governments. Pledges of US$105 million were made by donors towards an action plan for future returns. However, most of what was promised was existing funding, and disappointingly, very little additional resources were made available to scale up the process effectively.

In 2016, frustrated by the slow pace of returns, the Kenyan government introduced a timeline for the closure of Dadaab. While this increased the numbers entering the returns process – with about 25,000 to date this year – the pressure created significant protection concerns.

Where we are today

On 6 May, the Kenyan government announced that it intended to close Dadaab’s five camps by 30 November, citing economic, security and environmental burdens. Kenyan authorities suggested that it was in the interest of national security to shut down the camps, alleging they provided a haven and source of recruits for the armed group Al Shabaab. Recent terrorist attacks on Kenya’s Garissa University and on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall are thought to have influenced the urgency for the camps’ closure.

A first step in closing the camps was the disbandment of the widely respected Kenyan Department of Refugee Affairs, eventually replaced by the Refugee Affairs Secretariat and a national multi-agency refugee repatriation team. Since then, reports have been received of intimidation and coercion of refugees so that they return to Somalia.

Registration of new refugee arrivals was suspended and camp coordination structures were undermined. Humanitarian assistance, and UN and NGO resilience projects in the camps now face greater barriers to being implemented.

The government’s announcement called for the repatriation of all Somali refugees living in Dadaab. Uncertainty and fear spread among the refugee community, calling into question the voluntariness of returns. The sustainability of returns was also put in jeopardy, as many areas in Somalia are still insecure, as evidenced by the recent announcement of a further delay in planned national elections.

Somalia is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world, owing to the long-term conflict. It suffers from high unemployment and is devoid of basic social services. The country also hosts more than one million internally displaced people. For many refugees, especially those from rural areas, the prospects of return are dependent on their ability to reclaim their land in a country where the land tenure system is weak and forced evictions are common.

In addition, authorities and aid organizations had insufficient time to prepare the ground in areas where returns were possible. Following the announcement, however, returns increased dramatically despite the ongoing insecurity and fluid political situation. Following the government’s decision, UNHCR put in place enhanced return assistance to support repatriation. Today returnees receive financial assistance from UNHCR and in-kind support from aid organizations.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has been working with UNHCR to ensure that the overall process remains voluntary. NRC manages helpdesks in Dadaab, where it provides information on areas of return, to enable refugees to make an informed decision about going back. However, given the changing security situation in Somalia, where large parts of country remain cut off from access for NRC and our partners, providing refugees with accurate information about security and available services in return areas challenging.

Some returnees are availing of the return package and going back. One mother of 10 children who left Dadaab in September said: “Yesterday in the camp I had nothing. Now I have a small [aid] package to help us return. I will make a life for myself and my family in Mogadishu.”

However, the majority of refugees do not echo this sentiment. A UNHCR-led refugee population fixing exercise carried out in August revealed that an overwhelming 74 per cent of Somali refugees did not want to return yet largely fearing ongoing insecurity at home.

Read the full report: Dadaab’ s broken promises

Source: NRC