HUNDREDS OF SOMALI REFUGEES BUS OUT OF KENYA’S DADAAB REFUGEE CAMPS
The largest group of Somali refugees returning to Somalia at one time set off on Thursday from the Dadaab refugee camps in north-eastern Kenya. The 1,605 refugees who had signed up for voluntary repatriation were transported in a convoy of 12 buses to the Kenyan-Somali border. From there they will proceed to Kismayo in Lower Juba region and Luq in Gedo region.
Mohamed Mahad Gurhan, coordinator at UNHCR’s Dadaab office, told Radio Ergo the cash repatriation package given to the refugees had been increased from $180 to $200. He said this had encouraged more people to take the opportunity to go home voluntarily.
Mohamed Noor Aden, 37, lived in the camps for the five years. He told Radio Ergo he planned to return to his old profession teaching at a koranic school in Kismayo. He said the school as still there and the work would help him to support his five member family.
“Nobody has forced me to return to Somalia, but I realized that I can’t stay any longer than this in a refugee camp,” he said.
Dowlay Murjan Osman told Radio Ergo she was going home because the food rations distributed in the camps were not enough to support her seven member family.
“We receive the food once a month but it’s all finished by the first 15 days of the month,” she said. She hoped some of her farming relatives would assist her to settle down and restart her former business selling vegetables in Kismayo.
Mohamed Ibrahim, also returning to Kismayo, said his biggest worry was how to get schooling for his children. Four of his children had been attending Warsame Primary School in Kambioos camp in Dadaab.
“I didn’t stay in the camps to get food because food is something you can get anywhere if you work. Security and the education of my children were the mains issues that kept me here [in the camp], but the idea of going back home struck me when Kenya ordered the closure of the camps,” he said. He planned to take any job available to able to manage his family life.
More than 30,000 refugees have returned to Somalia since the voluntary repatriation process started in December 2014.
