Advertisement

Trump's anti-immigrant policy helps block exodus from Dadaab

Thursday April 25 2019
daa

Tents fill the outskirts of Dagahaley refugee camp in Kenya's Dadaab refugee complex on July 24, 2011. Current estimates place the refugee population here at around 210,000 people. PHOTO | PHIL MOORE | AFP

By KEVIN J KELLEY

US refusal to admit Somali immigrants is hindering efforts to reduce the population of the Dadaab refugee camp, which the Kenyan government is reportedly seeking to close.

“Resettlement in Dadaab remains a durable solution available for a very limited number of refugees due to the extremely limited number of countries showing interest in Somali refugee population,” the UN refugee agency said on Wednesday.

It noted that US immigration officials recently rejected all 56 of the Somali applications in Dadaab that had been proposed for resettlement in the US.

UNHCR said Sweden approved all but two of the 29 Somali Dadaab cases it had been forwarded for review.

Refugees from Somalia account for more than 95 per cent of the 210,556 individuals living in the near 28 year-old camp in eastern Kenya, according to the UN.

Dadaab's total population has increased by about 500 people since late February and by 9000 since September 2018.

Advertisement

In June last year, the US Supreme Court upheld President Donald Trump’s travel ban to restrict entry by people from five Muslim-majority countries.

Washington has also lowered to 30,000 the total number of refugees from all countries who will be admitted to the US this year.
In 2016, then-President Barrack Obama had set a ceiling of 110,000 refugees.

Advertisement