Kenya: Somalia Unsafe for Refugees to Return
Nairobi (RBC) – Kenyan authorities should not return
refugees to Somalia because of ongoing fighting and abuses against
civilians in areas controlled by Kenyan forces and allied militias,
Human Rights Watch said today. Instead of claiming that “newly liberated
areas” are safe for refugee return, Kenyan authorities should reopen
the screening center at Liboi and resume registration of new refugees to
ensure they receive assistance, Human Rights Watch said.
“Fierce clashes in southern Somalia still pose a grave threat to
civilians,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
“Instead of peddling false claims that the border areas are safe, Kenya
should focus on assisting and protecting refugees.”
Over the past months, prominent Kenyan officials have called for
Somali refugees to go back to Somalia, claiming it is safe for them to
return. During the week of March 19, 2012, both Foreign Affairs Minister
Moses Wetangula and Internal Security Minister George Saitoti said that
the Kenyan military has established a zone inside Somalia that is safe
for returning refugees, reiterating President Mwai Kibaki’s statement to
the London conference on Somalia on February 23.
Minister Saitoti was quoted in the media stating that, “Following the
combined forces of KDF [Kenya Defence Forces] and AMISOM [African Union
Mission in Somalia] some towns have been liberated and it is safe for
the refugees to return.”
However, fighting is ongoing in the border towns and regions Kenya
claims to control, and the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab maintains a
significant presence there, Human Rights Watch said.
While the authorities have contended that returns would be voluntary,
Human Rights Watch spoke to numerous victims of police abuses in Dadaab
in December 2011, at least three of whom said that the police told them
to “go back to Somalia” while beating them. The forced return of
refugees to a country where they face persecution, torture, or
situations of generalized violence – like Somalia – would violate
African regional and international law.
Human Rights Watch said that there is fighting involving al-Shabaab
in a number of areas held by the Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF) and
militias allied to Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG).
Kenya’s militarily intervened in Somalia against al-Shabaab on October
16, 2011, and Kenyan authorities have repeatedly referred to the areas
where they are deployed along the Kenya-Somali border as “newly
liberated.”
Human Rights Watch research found, however, that there have been
recurrent clashes between the Kenyan and allied Somali forces and
al-Shabaab’s fighters in Lower Juba, at the heart of the
Kenyan-controlled zone. Two residents of Bills Qooqaani, 90 kilometers
from the Kenya-Somali border town of Dhobley, told Human Rights Watch
that al-Shabaab fighters attacked the town on March 17. A refugee from
the Somali village of Taabta, 60 kilometers from Dhobley, said she fled
on March 15 as a result of ongoing nightly attacks by al-Shabaab on a
nearby Kenyan base.
On March 20, al-Shabaab fighters briefly retook the Somali village of
Diif, five kilometers from the Kenyan border. Just a week earlier, on
March 13, three boys were beheaded on the road between Diif and Dhobley
by al-Shabaab fighters, according to credible sources.
Fighting and displacement are also taking place in Gedo region, on
the northern edge of the so-called liberated areas. On March 12,
al-Shabaab fighters ambushed a joint Kenyan-TFG convoy outside the
village of Taraak. Local contacts told Human Rights Watch that on March 8
a car filled with people fleeing from Mogadishu to Kenya hit a landmine
between Belet Hawa and El Waq.
“People are fleeing the so-called liberated areas, not returning to them,” Bekele said.
The United Nations has reported the displacement of thousands of
civilians from Lower Juba and Gedo regions recently – including from
towns purportedly under Kenyan and TFG control, such as Bills Qooqaani –
to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. A credible source told Human Rights
Watch that Kenyan and TFG military forces have occupied schools in Gedo,
making it impossible for classes to continue.
Local sources in Dhobley told Human Rights Watch that very few
humanitarian agencies have staff in the border region, including in
Dhobley itself, the main border crossing for refugees.
While the Kenyan authorities have valid concerns about the
environmental and security impact of hosting hundreds of thousands of
Somali refugees, these concerns in no way justify encouraging refugees
to return to a war zone, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch called on the Kenyan authorities to resume the
registration of new arrivals in the Dadaab refugee camps on the Kenyan
side of the border, which has been suspended since October. It also
reiterated its call on Kenya to open a new refugee reception center in
the Kenyan border town of Liboi to ensure that refugees are screened for
security purposes and safely transported to the camps in Dadaab.
Kenya should improve security for the refugees and the local
community in Dadaab by investigating and prosecuting officers
responsible for recent abuses against refugees, including a police raid
December in which over 100 refugees were beaten, Human Rights Watch
said.
“Kenya’s concerns and legal obligations are better met by
registering, screening, and protecting refugees, not by misrepresenting
the security situation in Somalia,” Bekele said.
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