116 Somali refugees from Kenya land in Mogadishu, spearheading new phase of voluntary repatriation

Press Releases, 5 August 2015

Mogadishu, 5 August 2015

The arrival at Mogadishu International Airport today of 116 Somali refugees from Kenya marks a new chapter in the voluntary return process. Earlier in the morning, the two planes took off from Dadaab in Northeastern Kenya, the largest refugee settlement in the world, still hosting 333,000 Somali refugees. This is the result of efforts by the Tripartite Commission formed by UNHCR and the Governments of Kenya and Somalia, to step up support for voluntary repatriation of Somali refugees.

The Commission met on 29 July and agreed to scale up assistance to Somali refugees in Kenya wishing to return home and agreed on a strategy that envisages the voluntary repatriation of some 425,000 Somali refugees over a five year period.

Despite the fragile security environment situation in Somalia, refugees have started to return. In response to signs of increasing stability in Somalia, between December 2014 and early August, 2,969 Somali refugees have returned to the districts of Luuq, Baidoa and Kismayo, with UNHCR support as part of the pilot phase. More still have returned spontaneously without receiving assistance from UNHCR. Under the current agreement assistance will be provided to returnees to any area of Somaliland, Puntland and South Central Somalia. UNHCR support includes standardized financial and in-kind assistance to ensure safe and dignified return, as well as longer-term support to help returnees reintegrate in areas they once fled from. The majority of the returns from Kenya to Somalia will continue to take place by road as has been the case during the pilot phase, and only for people with specific protection needs will UNHCR facilitate airlifts.

Comprehensive development efforts are planned for nine districts in South Central regions – namely Mogadishu, Afgoye, Jowhar, Balcad, WanlaWeyn and Belet Weyne as well as Luuq, Baidoa and Kismayo. Development efforts in these areas aim to strengthen access to employment opportunities as well as health, education and other public services to anchor returns in Somalia.

UNHCR together with the two governments involved will strengthen efforts to rally international support for comprehensive and community-based interventions to support the refugees and their communities. A portfolio of humanitarian and development projects is being designed with the aim of creating a solid foundation for strengthening the resilience of the refugee and host communities in Kenya, preparing refugees for durable solutions, and creating conditions in Somalia that are conducive to meaningful and sustainable reintegration. The portfolio of projects will be presented at a Pledging Conference that will take place later this year.

The Tripartite Commission was established following the signing of the Tripartite Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Kenya, the Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia, and UNHCR, in November 2013 to govern the safe, dignified and voluntary repatriation of Somali refugees from Kenya. Following more than two decades of instability in Somalia compounded by consequences of recurring natural hazards, urgent solutions are needed for the 1.1 million internally displaced Somalis as well as the more than 900,000 Somali refugees hosted in the region, half of whom reside in Kenya.

For more information, please contact:

  • In Dadaab: Assadullah Nasrullah on mobile +254 705 840 030
  • In Nairobi: Emmanuel Nyabera on mobile: +254 733 995 975
  • For Somalia: Alexandra Strand Holm on mobile +254 733 121 147
  • In Geneva: Karin de Gruijl on mobile + 41 79 255 9213
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Repatriation

UNHCR works with the country of origin and host countries to help refugees return home.

Crossing the Gulf of Aden

Every year thousands of people in the Horn of Africa - mainly Somalis and Ethiopians - leave their homes out of fear or pure despair, in search of safety or a better life. They make their way over dangerous Somali roads to Bossaso in the northern semi-autonomous region of Puntland.

In this lawless area, smuggler networks have free reign and innocent and desperate civilians pay up to US$150 to make the perilous trip across the Gulf of Aden.

Some stay weeks on end in safe houses or temporary homes in Bossaso before they can depart. A sudden call and a departure in the middle of the night, crammed in small unstable boats. At sea, anything can happen to them - they are at the whim of smugglers. Some people get beaten, stabbed, killed and thrown overboard. Others drown before arriving on the beaches of Yemen, which have become the burial ground for hundreds who many of those who died en route.

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In February 2005, one of the last groups of Somalilander refugees to leave Aisha refugee camp in eastern Ethiopia boarded a UNHCR convoy and headed home to Harrirad in North-west Somalia - the self-declared independent state of Somaliland. Two years ago Harrirad was a tiny, sleepy village with only 67 buildings, but today more than 1,000 people live there, nearly all of whom are former refugees rebuilding their lives.

As the refugees flow back into Somalia, UNHCR plans to close Aisha camp by the middle of the year. The few remaining refugees in Aisha - who come from southern Somalia - will most likely be moved to the last eastern camp, Kebribeyah, already home to more than 10,000 refugees who cannot go home to Mogadishu and other areas in southern Somalia because of continuing lawlessness there. So far refugees have been returning to only two areas of the country - Somaliland and Puntland in the north-east.

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Flood Airdrop in Kenya

Over the weekend, UNHCR with the help of the US military began an emergency airdrop of some 200 tonnes of relief supplies for thousands of refugees badly hit by massive flooding in the Dadaab refugee camps in northern Kenya.

In a spectacular sight, 16 tonnes of plastic sheeting, mosquito nets, tents and blankets, were dropped on each run from the C-130 transport plane onto a site cleared of animals and people. Refugees loaded the supplies on trucks to take to the camps.

Dadaab, a three-camp complex hosting some 160,000 refugees, mainly from Somalia, has been cut off from the world for a month by heavy rains that washed away the road connecting the remote camps to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Air transport is the only way to get supplies into the camps.

UNHCR has moved 7,000 refugees from Ifo camp, worst affected by the flooding, to Hagadera camp, some 20 km away. A further 7,000 refugees have been moved to higher ground at a new site, called Ifo 2.

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