{"id":26620,"date":"2016-07-05T02:06:35","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T02:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/un-begins-sorting-false-from-genuine-refugees-in\/"},"modified":"2016-07-05T02:06:47","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T02:06:47","slug":"un-begins-sorting-false-from-genuine-refugees-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/un-begins-sorting-false-from-genuine-refugees-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya:UN begins sorting false from genuine refugees in Dadaab"},"content":{"rendered":"

{“We are aware of Kenyans falsely registering as refugees in order to get free services and food” – UN refugee agency spokesman}<\/p>\n

The United Nations on Monday launched a \u201cverification exercise\u201d to determine how many residents of the Dadaab complex are actually Kenya citizens posing as Somali refugees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware of Kenyans falsely registering as refugees in order to get free services and food,\u201d UN refugee agency spokesman Duke Mwancha told the Nation.<\/p>\n

The UN currently has no estimate of the size of this segment of Dadaab’s population of 340,000.<\/p>\n

But Mr Mwancha says his agency is aiming to specify within two months the number of Kenyans living in the camps under false pretences.<\/p>\n

This effort to compile a \u201cclean register\u201d is part of a recent agreement involving the UN and the governments of Kenya and Somalia to facilitate the return of 150,000 Somalis to their homeland by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

The three parties have also agreed that refugees from countries other than Somalia will be moved from Dadaab to the Kakuma camps.<\/p>\n

About 16,000 refugees \u2014 mainly from Ethiopia \u2014 are expected to make that 1,200-kilometre journey from Garissa County to Turkana County.<\/p>\n

Some Somalis have recently left Dadaab under circumstances that may not qualify as voluntary, says Ben Rawlence, author of a recently published book describing the lives of nine residents of the complex.<\/p>\n

\u2018ATMOSPHERE OF HOSTILITY\u2019<\/p>\n

Contacts in Dadaab have informed him, Mr Rawlence relates, that \u201cpeople are going now, apparently, because of threats and the prevailing atmosphere of hostility.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kenyan government has pledged it will not violate its international obligations by forcing any refugees to leave the country.<\/p>\n

None of the nine Somalis highlighted in Mr Rawlence’s book, City of Thorns, have left Dadaab, he told the Nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re in the camps for a reason,\u201d he said. \u201cSomalia is not safe, especially not for women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Mwancha said the UN has received no reports of refugees being forced back to Somalia from Dadaab.<\/p>\n

The refugee agency spokesman added that he is not aware of what Mr Rawlence describes as \u201ca desperate rush\u201d by some Somalis in Dadaab to obtain false Kenya identity cards.<\/p>\n

Mr Rawlence and other advocates for the refugees predict it will prove impossible to repatriate 150,000 Somalis by the end of the year without resorting to mass human rights violations.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow are they going to get people onto buses who don’t want to go?\u201d Mr Rawlence asks in regard to Kenyan and UN authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way to essentially halve the population of Dadaab is by doing it illegally.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UN refugee agency spokesman notes, in turn, that the goal of 150,000 returnees this year is \u201cjust a prospective figure.\u201d<\/p>\n

While \u201cit is in the interest of the government of Kenya to have as people as possible return to Somalia,\u201d the target number set in a joint communique issued last month may not be reached, Mr Mwancha says.<\/p>\n

The UN points out that the number of Somali refugees known to be living in Kenya has dropped in the past five years from 519,000 to 413,000.<\/p>\n

The roughly 100,000 who have left Kenya since 2011 are \u201cbelieved to have spontaneously returned to Somalia,\u201d the UN says.<\/p>\n

A total of 16,524 Somalis have been formally assisted by the UN in returning to Somalia from Dadaab during the past 18 months.<\/p>\n

Of that total, 10,413 have gone to Somalia during the first six months of this year, Mr Mwancha reports.<\/p>\n

But the full tally of returnees for 2016 is still likely to fall well short of the UN goal of 150,000 for this year.<\/p>\n

Funding for accelerated repatriation of Somalis is also not close to meeting pledged amounts.<\/p>\n

Donors said last year they would give $110 million to help expedite repatriation, but as of June only $7.2 million had been allocated.<\/p>\n

\"Refugees<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{“We are aware of Kenyans falsely registering as refugees in order to get free services and food” – UN refugee agency spokesman} The United Nations on Monday launched a \u201cverification exercise\u201d to determine how many residents of the Dadaab complex are actually Kenya citizens posing as Somali refugees. \u201cWe are aware of Kenyans falsely registering […]<\/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-26620","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\/26620","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=26620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26620"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=26620"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=26620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}