{"id":25225,"date":"2016-05-10T02:32:17","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T02:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/unhcr-asks-kenya-to-reconsider-closure-of-refugee\/"},"modified":"2016-05-10T02:32:06","modified_gmt":"2016-05-10T02:32:06","slug":"unhcr-asks-kenya-to-reconsider-closure-of-refugee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/unhcr-asks-kenya-to-reconsider-closure-of-refugee\/","title":{"rendered":"UNHCR asks Kenya to reconsider closure of refugee camps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Agency says it would not be right to send the asylum seekers back to their homes.}<\/p>\n<p>The United Nations has condemned Kenya\u2019s decision to close down Kakuma and Daadab refugee camps.<\/p>\n<p>The government was asked to reconsider its decision and avoid taking any action that might be at odds with its international obligations.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement from Geneva on Monday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the move could affect as many as 600,000 lives, and that as a result it viewed the new developments \u201cwith profound concerns\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor almost a quarter of a century Kenya has played a vital role in East Africa and the Horn of Africa in providing asylum to people forced to flee persecution and war,\u201d said UNHCR.<\/p>\n<p>The safety of hundreds of thousands of Somalis, South Sudanese and others, it said, had hinged on Kenya\u2019s generosity and its willingness to be a leading beacon in the region for international protection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTragically, the situations in Somalia and South Sudan that cause people to flee are still unresolved,\u201d said agency.<\/p>\n<p>It said it would remain in touch with Nairobi to fully understand the implications of the move, adding that it recognised that Kenya has played \u201can extraordinary role over many years\u201d as one of the world\u2019s frontline major refugee hosting nations, and that inevitably this has had many consequences for the country and its population.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) opposed the government\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n<p>KNCHR Vice Chairman George Morara said as much as Kenya\u2019s concern of the heavy burden of refugees was understandable, sending them away was against human rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is not right to send back the families back to where they were fleeing,\u201d he said calling on the international community to help Kenya shoulder the burden of refugees instead of closing down the camps.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-12221 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/camp.jpg\" alt=\"Somali refugees walking in the new Ifo extension at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya on July 31, 2011. \" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Agency says it would not be right to send the asylum seekers back to their homes.} The United Nations has condemned Kenya\u2019s decision to close down Kakuma and Daadab refugee camps. The government was asked to reconsider its decision and avoid taking any action that might be at odds with its international obligations. In a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25225"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25225"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}