Kenya closes Dadaab camp due lack of support, Kenyan MP says

Alias Bare Shill a Kenyan Member of Parliament, said  Kenyan government decided to closed Dadaab refugee camp that hosts more than half million Somali refugees due lack of support from the international community.

He said Kenya government wants the world put focused on these refugees who are facing dire situation and give them equal opportunity with those from Syria and the rest of the world.

“The world got busy with those refugees from Syria and it has totally forgotten the Somali refugees in Kenya especially those live in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps” said Shill.

He added “In favour of raising budgets  to refugees headed to the West. International obligations in Africa should not be done on the cheap; the world continues to learn the ruinous effect of these persistent double standards.”

A statement issued by the Ministry of Interior earlier this month, said the Government had disbanded its Department of Refugee Affairs and was working on a mechanism for the closure of Kenya’s refugee camps – a move that could affect as many as 600,000 lives.

Dadaab refugee camp is the largest in the world, and combined with Kakuma, they both host about 600,000 refugees.

The Daadab refugee camp is home to almost half a million Somali refugees who fled their country due to decades of civil war.

For years, there have been talks of closing down the camps because of the burden on the country and so a repatriation program was started following the Tripartite Agreement.

The agreement was between Kenya, Somalia and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) which would see the refugees assisted to return to their home countries for the eventual closure of the camps.

Over 100,000 refugees have left the camps so far, some through assistance and others on their own volition, over the past couple of years.