The Kenyan government is violating the rights of Somali refugees and putting thousands at risk, an Amnesty report shows
NAIROBI (AlertNet) - The Kenyan government is violating the rights of Somali refugees and putting thousands of lives at risk, Amnesty International said in a report released on Wednesday.
It called on the Kenyan government to open the Kenya-Somali border, which has been closed since 2007 in violation of international law.
“Continued fighting and horrendous abuses in Somalia pose a very real threat to the lives of tens of thousands of children, women and men. No Somali should be forcibly returned to southern and central Somalia,” Michelle Kagari, Africa Programme Deputy Director at Amnesty International said in a statement.
Last month, the Kenya government turned back thousands of Somalis who were fleeing fighting in the Horn of Africa nation which has been at war since 1991.
The closure of the U.N. refugee agency’s transit centre in Liboi on the Kenya-Somali border, where Somali refugees were screened, means that many enter the country illegally and do not get refugee papers. This makes them vulnerable to police harassment.
In recent days, the Kenyan police have arrested 294 Somalis in Nairobi as part of a security crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Last week, a Kenyan policeman was killed when unidentified men lobbed a grenade into a police vehicle in Nairobi’s predominantly Somali suburb of Eastleigh.
Kenya’s overcrowded Daadab camp near the Somali border is the world’s largest refugee camp with a population of more than 300,000 people.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
