Kenya mandates that refugees hand over their passports by October or risk deportation.
John Burugu, holding the ship’s wheel as Kenya’s Refugee Affairs Commissioner, recently faced the media. He laid down a fresh mandate for refugees, a summons demanding they relinquish their passports, pointing to jitters over travel document fiddling while spotlighting the need to toe the line on international laws.
Nairobi’s Ministry of Interior sounded the alarm for refugees and asylum seekers to slap their passports on the desk by October’s end. If they wave it off, they risk having their refugee status evaporated and potentially facing a boot back to where they came from.
This new order pops up as a reaction to a brouhaha simmering over some refugees traipsing overseas on their native passports. Weariness over potential skullduggery in the refugee queue is thick in the air. With a ticking 30-day countdown clock, Burugu iterates the demand for passport handover.
“Refugees are on watch to sidestep passports issued from their birthlands,” stated Burugu emphatically. “Defy, and they’ll strike flint against steel, facing legal wrath, including status cancellation and possible ejection.”
This development rocks the boat for a hefty Somali refugee shuffle, those dodging storms back home. Many lodge in the vast Dadaab camp, others in Kakuma.
Burugu tossed in a bone, explaining that those needing to jet beyond Kenya’s borders can snag machine-readable travel papers from the Department of Refugee Services, paving a proper path under this brand-new decree.
Shaking heads at the pivot, Somali refugee leaders balk at these dicey regulations, a legal conundrum with Somalia joining the East African Community (EAC) recently. Abdullahi Ali Adan, the Dagahaley camp’s potentate, flagged the two-headed sword dilemma—cribbing a passport yet holding refugee status under EAC rules.
“This regulation clashes with our reality,” Adan conveyed to the BBC. Refugees wrangle with choosing whether to hold on to passports or stay legally grounded under the displaced label in Kenya’s borders. Business folks, in particular, wrestle with travel shackles dealt by a passport-less life.
Adan voiced hustle over the snappy compliance request. “We’re hustling for more time. A flock of refugees uses passports to win bread on business trips, and good travel papers don’t sprout overnight. Thirty days is skimming on the edge,” he grumbled.
There’s also chatter among Kenyan bosses alongside Somali refugee honchos to chew over these concerns. Promises sway towards mulling over stretching this looming deadline. Chinwags are on the docket between Kenyan top dogs and Somali government peeps next week.
Burugu comforted refugees, affirming the government stands as a pal through this shuffle, prioritizing their safety and welfare in the upheaval.
Kenya ranks as a refuge for more than 750,000 fleeing souls from lands like Somalia, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Burundi. A majority stake their existence in sprawling camps like Dadaab and Kakuma, while a splash over 100,000 weave life in urban sprawls.
With files from the BBC Somali Service
Edited by: Ali Musa
Axadle international–Monitoring
