Somaliland: Whether returnees from refugee camps can repossess their properties: houses, lands or businesses; if not, forms of recourse available; and the treatment of those who make such claims
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 1 January 1999 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | SML30964.E |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Somaliland: Whether returnees from refugee camps can repossess their properties: houses, lands or businesses; if not, forms of recourse available; and the treatment of those who make such claims, 1 January 1999, SML30964.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6aae778.html [accessed 22 October 2022] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Specific information on whether returnees to Somaliland can reclaim their properties: houses, lands or business, and the recourse available to those who fail to repossess their properties could not be found among the sources currently available to the Research Directorate.
According to the deputy coordinator of the United Nations Development Programme Emergency Unit for Ethiopia (UNDP-EUE) most returnees are concentrated in Hargeisa and surrounding areas. He explained that this is because the eastern part of Somaliland is still unsafe (20 Jan. 1999). The UNHCR Fact Sheet for 1998 corroborates this information by stating that
While the target figure for 1998 was 70,000, the rate and the Northwest's [Somaliland] ability to absorb returnees depends on timely international aid to the Hargeisa area as well as continued political and economic stability...Although repatriating Somalis receive a grant of 200 bir (27US$) per person ...the problems they confront are often not so easily resolved: the people of Aware and Aisha camps for example, 95,000 in all await the de-mining of their home villages before they can think about returning (UNHCR 21 Dec. 1998)
The deputy coordinator of the UNDP-EUE further stated that the repatriation program has been temporarily suspended on the request of the President Egal. The president asked that the programme be suspended until such a time as the international community can supply sufficient assistance aid ( ibid.). The president reportedly stated that
We are not yet strong enough, our economy is not strong enough, and the country is not yet safe enough for these people to return, what you are doing now will result in a refugee exchanging the name of refugee for a displaced person in his land (Maroodi Jeex Somaliland Alternative Newsletter 19 Jan. 1999).
Matt Bryden, Project Coordinator, War-Torn Societies Project (WSP) in Nairobi, reportedly stated that generally "any claim to property in Hargeisa from a "non resident" member, i.e. a clan member whose clan did not traditionally belong in the area, could place the person in question in real danger" (Danish Fact-Finding Mission to Somalia and Kenya July 1998,7).
This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
References
Danish Immigration Service [Copenhagen]. July 1998. Fact-Finding Mission to Somalia and Kenya, 27 October - 7 November 1997 [Internet]
The Christian Science Monitor [Boston]. 28 December 1998. "In the north, Somaliland is Forging an Independent Path to Recovery." (NEXIS)
Maroodi Jeex: A Somaliland Alternative Newsletter. 19 January 1999. Issue No. 5. [Internet]
UNCHR. 21 December 1998. "Africa Fact Sheet." [Internet]
UNDP-EUE, Nairobi. Telephone interview with Deputy-Coordinator.
