adminNairobi – The Kenyan government said on Friday it will close two refugee camps, including one of the world’s biggest, due to a lack of security and economic challenges as human Rights group condemned the plan.
The closure of the camps will have adverse effects and the international community should collectively take responsibility for the humanitarian needs that arise, Karanja Kibicho, permanent secretary at the Interior Ministry, said. The government has disbanded the Department of Refugee Affairs, which works with humanitarian organisations looking after the welfare of refugees, Kibicho said.
The voluntary repatriation process in an agreement signed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Kenyan government and the Somali government in 2013 has been very slow, Kibicho said.
He said Kenya has been hosting the refugees for nearly 25 years and it had taken its toll on the country.
The camps targeted for closure are Daadab and Kakuma. Daadab in eastern Kenya is that largest, with more than 328,000 refugees, mainly Somalis escaping conflict in their war-torn country that is struggling to defeat an insurgency by the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabaab insurgents. The Kakuma camp hosts 190,000 refuges, the majority of them South Sudanese escaping civil war in their country.
Kibicho said the camps have bred terrorists from al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab has vowed attacks on Kenya for sending troops to Somalia to fight the militants as part of the African Union forces bolstering Somalia’s weak government. — AP
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