The government of Kenya has disclosed that the decision to close down refugee camps was arrived at in 2013.
In a communicaton on Wednesday, the government said Kenya, Somalia and UNHCR signed a Tripartite Agreement setting grounds for repatriation of Somali refugees three years ago.
Last week Friday, Interior Ministry Principal Secretary Karanja Kibocho said the government had decided to close the camps, which have been home to 600, 000 refugees for over 25 years.
Kibicho cited insecurity as the main reason why the government decided to send the refugees out of Kenya.
“For reasons of pressing national security that speak to the safety of Kenyans in a context of terrorist and criminal activities, the Government of the Republic of Kenya has commenced the exercise of closing Dadaab Refugee Complex. The refugees will be repatriated to their countries of origin or to third party countries for resettlement,” Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery said on Wednesday in a statement.
Nkaissery said refugee camps had become centres of poaching, human trafficking and proliferation of illicit weapons which compromises Kenya’s international security rating.
“The hosting of refugees has been costly for Kenya. As a country we have been glad to help our neighbours and all those in need sometimes at the expense of our security. But there comes a time when we must think primarily about the security of our people. Ladies and Gentlemen, that time is now,” he said.
“This decision has been made by Government reflecting the fact that the camps have become hosting grounds for Al Shabaab as well as centres of smuggling and contraband trade besides being enablers of illicit weapons proliferation.”
The CS also said that the camps are now completely overcrowded since they were built for far less numbers and the International Community has never moved to address this.
He said that the environmental impact has been disastrous for host communities.
Nkaissery cited the Westgate Shopping Mallattack, Garissa University attack and the Lamu attack as some of the activities that were planned and deployed from Dadaab Refugee Camp by transnational terrorist groups.
“Some of these attacks were aimed at the interests of our international partners yet Kenya continues to bear the brunt of these attacks on their behalf with negligible support from them. Looking ahead, our national security organs have observed that terrorist groups such as ISIS are looking to make inroads into our region.
“Elsewhere, ISIS has taken advantage of refugee inflows and processes to install its destructive cells. So much so that governments across Europe and the Middle East have taken unprecedented efforts to limit refugee inflows into their countries on the grounds of national security. Kenya cannot look aside and allow this threat to escalate any further,” he said.
He revealed that the government shall be putting out a timetable for the execution of the repatriation process once the Taskforce presents its report, which should be ready by, or before May 31.