Kenya appears to have doubled down on efforts to close a pair of refugee camps, one of which was once the largest in the world.

In March, the Interior Ministry demanded the UN refugee agency develop a plan to close the Dadaab and Kakuma camps within 14 days, saying there was “no room for further negotiations.” Kenya’s high court temporarily blocked that effort, and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi claimed the camps would remain open.

Still, the UN refugee agency this week agreed to work with Kenya “to finalize and implement a roadmap on the next steps towards a humane management of refugees in both camps.” An initial proposal called for “enhanced voluntary repatriation” and novel arrangements for refugees from elsewhere in East Africa, among other steps. Kenya wants the process completed and the camps closed by June 2022.

The 30-year-old Dadaab camp, near Kenya’s eastern border with Somalia, was once the world’s largest refugee complex, with more than 500,000 mostly Somali refugees. Roughly 224,000 people live there now, and another 206,000 live in the northwestern Kakuma camp. The facilities are some of Africa’s longest-running refugee camps, and their former residents include current U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who spent several years in Dadaab as a child, and supermodel Halima Aden, who lived in Kakuma.

The most recent threat of closure has stirred anxieties among residents, given that conditions in origin countries such as Somalia, South Sudan, and elsewhere remain dire.

This is not the first time Kenya has taken steps to close Dadaab, which it claimed has been used by the jihadist group al-Shabaab. A Kenyan court previously blocked the camp from closing in 2017, and the government has been accused of using refugees as leverage for international aid and political support. The recent demand comes amid a dispute between Kenya and Somalia over a maritime boundary.

Whether or not the camps are entering the last 14 months of their existence, reflections on their long-term future are overdue. Groups such as Doctors Without Borders and Human Rights Watch have supported efforts to integrate the camps into their surrounding communities. Many refugees have lived in the camps for all or virtually all of their lives.

“We are not chasing people away, but a camp is not a permanent thing,” Kenya’s cabinet secretary for foreign affairs, Raychelle Omamo, said this week. “It is a place of limbo.” So far, that limbo has lasted for 30 years and counting.

Best regards,
Julian Hattem
Editor, Migration Information Source
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