Dadaab refugees protest against limited freedoms, poor living standards

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DADAAB - Refugees in Dadaab camp now want to be allowed more freedom within the hosting nation Kenya besides getting more support.

At the Global Forum in Geneva this week, VOA reports, refugees called for more freedom of movement within Kenya, arguing that they are struggling to sustain their lives.

The current regulations, they said, hinders the possibility of getting access to better jobs despite some of them already getting a good education.

Mohamed Ahmed Abdisalam has been living in Dadaab since January 2009 when he fled Somalia. He says the refugees in Dadaab lack the freedoms needed to find employment or set up businesses.

“We are living in an open prison,” Abdisalam said. “We don’t have legal papers to move around and seek jobs. We need mental freedom, and to travel without fear.”

Dadaab camp is the largest in the South of Sahara and hosts over 250,000 refugees mainly from Somalia and South Sudan for decades now.

With Somalia battling decades of civil war and Al-Shabaab menace, the South Sudan political crisis has displaced thousands who have since moved to Kenya.

"Refugees are just like any other people, any other human being. They have rights to education, they have rights to shelter, they have rights to scholarships, and they have rights to waters and everything," says another Somali-born Dadaab resident, Aden Mohamed Hussein.

Nairobi has been pushing for repatriation of refugees from Dadaab, a move that met resistance from United Nations and other agencies.

But statistics show over 80,000 refugees have returned to Somalia although some have been forced back due to prevailing conditions in the Horn of Africa nation.

“People are coming back because they are not getting support, they are not even getting all of the small money promised to them,” said Deqa Jeylani Mohamed, a Somali who has been living in Dadaab since 2007.

A U.N. official who worked with the returnees told VOA Somali that each refugee who returns voluntarily is supposed to receive $200, plus payment of school fees for the children for six months after they arrive home.

Recently, Kenya increased surveillance in the camp, accusing a section of refugees of allegedly working with Al-Shabaab militants to destabilize the country.

A report by UN Panel of Experts in November revealed that one of the terrorists killed in the Dusit D2 Hotel attack in Nairobi early this year was born and bred in Dadaab refugee camp.

This, authorities said, forced the government to impose more restrictions against refugees including limiting their movements from the camp.

At some point, Kenya had demanded immediate repatriation of all refugees, accusing them of fueling insecurity in the country due to persistent Al-Shabaab attacks.

Both Somalia and South Sudan are yet to get to their feet, although there is glaring hope that the two nations will soon usher in democratic governments.

GAROWE ONLINE

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