Kenya must treat Somali refugees humanely

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) — struggling on a tiny budget to cope with the numbers and seemingly unable to control corrupt security guards demanding bribes at the gates — is unable to register all new refugees.

In one hour, I identified 180 refugees — mothers with many children, the sick, the elderly — who said they had tried in vain for weeks or months to register, and had given up, leaving them with no food or shelter.

How has it come to this?

Despite increasing arrivals since 2006, the UN started negotiations for new land — now deadlocked — far too late. The earliest a fourth camp will be ready is mid-2009, and by then, a fifth camp will be needed.

Immediate action is needed.

First, while Kenya may have legitimate security concerns over Somalia, closing its border — which also led the refugee agency to close a transit centre where refugees were registered and given health checks — meets neither its security needs nor its obligation to protect civilians fleeing a war zone.

Kenya should immediately ensure that refugees can cross the border and it should rein in its corrupt police.

Second, UNHCR should urgently take steps to ensure all refugees are registered and the UN Country Team must step in to secure more land.

Third, donor governments, including the United States and European states, should increase assistance to the UNHCR to ensure that Dadaab’s refugees, including Hamida, receive the help they desperately need.

Gerry Simpson is a Human Rights Watch researcher who recently spent three weeks in Kenya, at Dadaab and in Eastleigh in Nairobi, speaking with refugees who had recently fled the armed conflict in Somalia