Tuesday, April 14, 2015

AFP: Kenya warned over closing world's biggest refugee camp - UN and most Western governments are now criminal enterprises determined to flood and erase the West. --tma


Kenya warned over closing world's biggest refugee camp

DAI02. Dadaab (Kenya), .- (FILE) A file photograph dated 17 June 2011 shows a general view of the self-settled area just outside of Dagahaley camp, one of three camps that make up sprawling Dadaab refugee camp in Dadaab, northeastern Kenya. Kenya's government on 11 April 2015 ordered the UN-run Dadaab refugee camp - the world's largest - to be relocated to Somalia within three months. The camp in north-eastern Kenya holds 350,000 Somali refugees who have fled war and famine back home. (Kenia) EFE/EPA/DAI KUROKAWA *** Local Caption *** 50076159

Geneva (AFP) - The United Nations warned Kenyan authorities Tuesday that closing the world's biggest refugee camp complex would have "extreme humanitarian and practical consequences" and would violate international law.
On Sunday, the Kenyan government said it had asked the UN refugee agency to repatriate hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees from the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp by July in the wake of the Garissa University massacre claimed by Shebab insurgents from Somalia.
"We recognise the obligation of the government to ensure the security of its citizens and other people living in Kenya, including refugees," UNHCR spokeswoman Karin de Gruijl told reporters in Geneva, expressing shock at the April 2 attack that left nearly 150 people dead.
However, she said the UNHCR was deeply concerned that abruptly closing Dadaab, which houses 350,000 refugees and is considered the world's biggest camp, and forcing refugees to return to Somalia could have dire consequences.
Such a move "would have extreme humanitarian and practical consequences, and would be a breach of Kenya's international obligations," de Gruijl said.
"We are thus urging the Kenyan authorities to give the matter further consideration," she said. ...