Kenya to push over 280,000 refugees back to Somalia

With the closure of the world’s largest migrant camp in Kenya, thousands of Somali refugees could be forced to return to their war-ravaged homeland. The move has been branded a violation of international law.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said Monday that what was supposed to be a voluntary returns process, involving mostly Somalis, did not meet international standards and that Kenya was violating international law.

"The pressure to push more than 280,000 registered refugees from the Dadaab camp has led to chaotic and disorganised returns," said NRC secretary-general Jan Egeland.

"From what we have seen on the ground, it is no longer voluntary, dignified nor safe."

Kenya, however, insists that the emptying of Dadaab, which is home to hundreds of thousands of refugees, many of them Somalis, is being carried out in line with international law.

The decision to voluntarily repatriate Somalis was made in 2013 under an agreement between the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the Kenyan government and the federal government of Somalia.

The refugees are been returned to a country with already over one million displaced people, and where five million lack enough food to survive. Furthermore, African Union and Somali forces are still fighting al-Qaeda-aligned al-Shabaab militants.

But returning refugees to a place where their lives or freedoms are at risk is illegal under the 1951 Refugee Convention.