Bloc to handle fundraising for repatriation of refugees

Somali refugees wait to be documented at Daadab airstrip on June 16, 2016 as they prepare to be voluntary repatriated to Somalia. Last year, the UNHCR, Kenya and Somalia organised a donor pledging conference at the European Union Headquarters in Brussels last October, but donors only pledged a fifth of their initial target of Sh50 billion. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Igad is a seven-member regional organisation that includes Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, South Sudan and Sudan.
  • This Commission was formed in 2013 after the three parties signed a Tripartite Agreement for the voluntary repatriation of refugees. There were about 400, 000 refugees in the camp at the time.

Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) will now be in charge of raising funds for the repatriation of Somali refugees from Kenya.

A meeting of Foreign ministers from Kenya and Somalia, as well as UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) boss Filippo Grandi in Nairobi on Saturday resolved to use Igad as a way of preventing future refugee crises from Somalia.

“The Commission committed to actively engage various bilateral and multilateral development partners to raise necessary funds and resources to facilitate the repatriation and restoration programmes,” a dispatch from the meeting said on Saturday, referring a commission including Kenyan, Somali and UNHCR representatives.

“A specific reference was made to the potential role of Igad in facilitating the provision of international development aid to Somalia and in supporting regional approaches to the Somali refugee crisis.”

The announcement was made by Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed who argued the decision was based on Igad’s role of ensuring stability in the region.

But it has been given a fund-raising for refugee resettlement following Kenya’s announcement to close the Dadaab Refugee camp arguing it was hosting terrorist sympathisers and acting as a conduit for smuggling.

Igad is a seven-member regional organisation that includes Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, South Sudan and Sudan. It has recently played midwife to the transitional government that helped end a three-year conflict in South Sudan.

The meeting in Nairobi was also attended by Somali Foreign Minister Abdusalam Omer. It came just a day after Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho said it would require Sh20 billion to entirely clear Dadaab and resettle refugees in Somalia.

Kenya has already announced it will pump in Sh1 billion for the project.

On Saturday, Dr Omer called for “partnership” which he argued was necessary to resettle all refugees.

This Commission was formed in 2013 after the three parties signed a Tripartite Agreement for the voluntary repatriation of refugees. There were about 400, 000 refugees in the camp at the time.

STILL ON COURSE
The agreement is set to expire this November, but only about 16,000 refugees have been taken back home through the agreed format, although UNHCR argues another 100,000 have returned home or left the camp on their own.

The camp now has about 326, 000 (see link: http://data.unhcr.org/horn-of-africa/region.php?id=3&country=110).

On Saturday, he said there will be more incentive to have more leave.

“We are planning to increase the package or double it as this is what most of the refugees have requested because they actually want to go home. The package is the need for cash for food and also other non-food items. All-in-all, the most important part of repatriation process will be cash,” the UNHCR chief told reporters in Nairobi.

The government says the renewed repatriation starts on July 1, but the need for cash has been persistent, and UNHCR itself has admitted it will not be able to repatriate all the refugees by the expiry date.

Last year, the UNHCR, Kenya and Somalia organised a donor pledging conference at the European Union Headquarters in Brussels last October, but donors only pledged a fifth of their initial target of Sh50 billion.

The Commission on Saturday pored over various documents produced since 2013. They include the Report of the National Taskforce on Repatriation of Refugees from the Dadaab Refugee Complex, the Somali Proposed Scheme for Somali Returnees from Dadaab and the elements of the UNHCR Plan of Action.

They concluded that the Dadaab population could reduce by 150,000 individuals by the end of 2016 as a result of voluntary returns to Somalia, relocation of non-Somali refugees, the de-registration of Kenyan citizens who registered as refugees, and a population verification being conducted to determine actual numbers.

But the communique added that there will be a need to “conclude concrete operational modalities and support measures which will be provided in Kenya and Somalia to ensure the safe, dignified, voluntary return and sustainable reintegration of Somali refugees from Kenya.”