{UAH} REFUGEES, GO HOME.

28 Nov- Source: The Economist-398 Words

IT IS time for the 500,000-odd citizens of Somalia living in Kenya to go home—that is, according to Kenya's interior minister, Joseph Ole Lenku. He visited the sprawling Dadaab camp near Kenya's border with Somalia on November 23rd to tell the nearly 400,000 refugees there that it was closing time. "The time for debate" over whether it was safe for them to return to their conflict-ridden country was past, he told them. "There is no turning back on the process [of repatriation] of refugees."

This has rattled the UN's High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). While progress in some parts of Somalia is stumbling ahead after two decades of civil war, the country remains one of the world's most dangerous. Refugees have rights under international law; strict conditions must be met before they can be sent home. Normally a survey would be conducted to establish whether they think it is safe to return. Little of this appears to have happened before a deal was signed on November 10th between the UNHCR and the governments of Somalia and Kenya.

Viele GruBe

Robukui