Rift Valley Institute Meeting Report Nairobi Forum, 15 February 2013 RIGHTS & REPRESENTATION Hasty Repatriation Is it time for Somali refugees in Kenya to go home? In partnership with the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, Mogadishu Kenya hosts one of the largest refugee populations in Key points the world. § The Kenyan government’s hardening stance towards the return of Somali refugees and Background its recent directive to send all urban Laetitia Bader Human Rights Watch; Anab Nur Researcher refugees to camps are a reaction to changing at the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies and author of conditions in Kenya, in particular a series of the report; H.E. Mohamed Ali Nur Somali Ambassador to security incidents and the forthcoming Kenya; Jacqueline Parlevliet Deputy Representative general elections, rather than improved (Protection), UNHCR conditions in Somalia. The Chair, Laetitia Bader, provided a background to § Most Somali refugees remain ambivalent the report’s inquiry. The issue of repatriating about returning, given the fragile security in refugees, she noted, is a recent but ever unfolding Somalia. debate. Towards the end of 2012, following a spate § The growing number of spontaneous returns of grenade attacks in the Somali-populated Eastleigh is a reflection of heightened insecurity and neighbourhood in Nairobi, the Government of abuses towards Somali refugees in Kenya, Kenya’s stance on the return of Somali refugees rather than improved security in Somalia. hardened, moving away from its previous position § The Federal Government of Somalia is that refugees should return due to improving currently unprepared to absorb large conditions in Somalia towards blaming refugees for a numbers of returnees, and must address the deteriorating security situation in Kenya. insecurity faced by internally displaced On 13 December 2012, a statement by the Kenyan populations (IDPs) in Somalia, as well as land Department of Refugee Affairs was printed in a and property rights, before conditions will national newspaper, announcing that all urban be conducive for return. refugees would be sent to camps, and calling for § A joint repatriation plan by the governments UNHCR and other partners working with urban of Kenya and Somalia would do much to refugees to terminate their operations. In January, a ensure an orderly and safe return. government letter was released, in which the first phase of the proposed operation was described: the Introduction round-up of 18,000 urban refugees and asylum seekers on 21 January, in preparation for them to be Mark Bradbury, the RVI Horn of Africa and East Africa sent to the camps. A Kenyan legal aid organization Regional Director, began the meeting by introducing working with refugees successfully filed a suit the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies (HIPS), a opposing the government’s directive. This halted the Mogadishu-based think-tank which is launching its implementation of the operation, at least until the first report by Anab Nur entitled ‘Hasty Repatriation: scheduled High Court hearing on Tuesday 19 1 Kenya’s attempt to send Somali refugees home’. He February. noted that large populations of refugees and IDPs are critical regional challenges. Somalia, which was once Report findings a host country for refugees from Ethiopia, has for the last 20 years been a refugee-producing country, and Anab Nur began by acknowledging Kenya’s generosity in opening its borders to Somali refugees over the previous 20 years. However, she noted that 1 http://heritageinstitute.org/index.php/sample-sites/parks. the Kenyan government is increasingly framing Rift Valley Institute | Meeting Report | Nairobi Forum | Hasty repatriation | 15 February 2013 | Page 2 of 3 Somali refugees as a national burden, blaming Hawo, close to the Kenya-Somalia border, to growing insecurity in the country on its refugee accommodate returning refugees. But she pointed population. Somali refugees have also been the out that existing IDP camps in Somalia are highly victims of terrorist attacks on Kenyan soil, as well as insecure, rendering their residents vulnerable to rape reprisals by the Kenyan authorities in the form of the and robbery. The Federal Government of Somalia police and the military. Anab concluded that the needs to address the insecurity facing its current IDP decision by the Kenyan government to send all urban population. She added, to enable refugees to return refugees to camps is a knee-jerk reaction based on to to their homes and reclaim land and property, the current conditions in Kenya. Somali government needs urgently to prioritise issues of land and property rights. She emphasised that any attempt by Kenya to return Somali refugees forcibly would be in breach of its Based on these findings, the HIPS report makes responsibility to protect refugees, to which it is recommendations to the Kenyan government, to the committed as a signatory to Somali government, to UNHCR, the 1951 Convention and to international assistance Relating to the Status of There is no doubt about Kenya’s agencies. It recommends to the Refugees, the 1967 Protocol generosity, having opened its Government of Kenya that it Relating to the Status of borders to Somali refugees over the suspend plans to repatriate Refugees and the 1969 last 20 years. However, the reality Somali refugees, take Organisation of African Unity now is that Somali refugees are responsibility for growing Convention. insecurity in Dadaab, properly framed as a national burden and investigate attacks and Anab described how have been victims of terrorist abductions on its territory, and refugees in Kenya and attacks on Kenyan soil, reprisals by publicly disassociate Somali Somalis from the diaspora refugees from these incidents. have been returning in their the Kenyan authorities, in the form The report also concludes that thousands because of the of the police and the military, and the Kenyan government should improvement in the security xenophobic attacks carried out by hold the police and military situation in Mogadishu and members of the public. accountable for abuses surrounding cities following committed against Somali the ousting of al-Shabaab. Anab Nur, HIPS refugees, and repair relations Yet, normalcy remains an with the Somali community. elusive prospect, and this is causing refugees in Finally, the Kenyan government should encourage Kenya to be ambivalent about return. and facilitate partnerships with international Many of the refugees she interviewed stated that organisations, NGOs, and the Somali government, they would prefer to return to their home regions working towards an orderly and considered where they had land and property interests and clan repatriation programme that guarantees the safe support networks. But only 6 per cent of refugees return of Somali refugees. interviewed said that they were prepared to return Key recommendations to the Government of Somalia home immediately, while 63 per cent said that they include drafting a repatriation plan and forming a would only be willing to return if the security joint commission with the Kenyan government with situation improved. 20 per cent said they were not that aim in mind, but to maintain its insistence that prepared to return because they considered that the no refugees should be forced to return. The Somali conditions under which they fled still remained in government should also address the problems facing their home regions. IDPs in Somalia and issues of land and property Anab noted that for refugees in Eastleigh, return has rights. largely been prompted by heightened insecurity, police extortion, and violent reprisals, following the Discussion grenade attacks in Eastleigh in November and December 2012. An additional factor in pushing Jacqueline Parlevliet noted that the HIPS report is refugees to return has been the prevailing timely and raises two important issues, firstly uncertainty about Kenya’s stability during and after regarding a durable framework for solving the Somali the elections in early March. refugee problem, and secondly regarding the shrinking refugee protection space in Kenya. She On the Somali government’s capacity to absorb noted that there had been no consultation process thousands of refugees, Anab reported that the ahead of the Kenyan government’s directive in government plans to establish IDP camps near Beled December, and that the announcement came as a Rift Valley Institute | Meeting Report | Nairobi Forum | Hasty repatriation | 15 February 2013 | Page 3 of 3 shock to UNHCR, which had been successfully piloting Laetitia Bader questioned whether the numbers an urban refugee programme in Kenya. being quoted of refugees returning to Mogadishu and crossing the border were helpful or meaningful. She UNHCR, she said, are now working with noted that there have also been high rates of return implementing partners and the Government of Kenya of refugees to Dadaab who had been caught up in to establish strategies to mitigate the negative fighting in Somalia, yet these numbers tend to be impact of sending urban refugees to camps. UNHCR hidden. Jacqueline Parlevliet commented that it is cannot participate in any forced relocation, since this unclear how sustainable or would be a violation of its durable the returns are. In mandate to protect refugees, Although we cannot participate in addition, it is difficult to but it would have an obligation the relocation itself, or any forced measure cross-border to receive and assist refugees movements, since refugees arriving at the camps—and relocation, once refugees do arrive often return on a short-term ensure that there is adequate in the camps UNHCR will have an basis, moving back and forth protection space in the event obligation to receive and assist the in order to maintain their of the directive being refugees. … I would like to stress refugee status in Kenya as a implemented. UNHCR has that the UNHCR works only with the safety net. There is therefore already been working with the a need to think critically Government of Kenya to concept of voluntary return, so any about what refugees’ deploy more police officers to forced will be a violation of the movements mean.