Jubaland slams doors against refugees stranded at border of Kenya-Somalia

Jubaland administration yesterday refused to receive returnees from Dadaab.The Somali refugees are going back as part of repatriation from Kenya.

In the afternoon, hundreds of refugees, mainly women and children, were stranded in Dhobley at the Kenya-Somalia border. Jubaland’s Interior minister Mohamed Darwish said Kenya and the UN refugee agency “just dumped the refugees” without proper resettlement mechanism.

‘‘The refugees are just dumped in an open place. We cannot afford to keep them in this condition. Our main city Kismayo is full of repatriated refugees,” he said. “We opted to keep them at the transit centres at the border until the situation is improved. They had a good life in Dadaab, but here they are not getting anything.’’ He said his administration is concerned that the arrival of many young displaced refugees poses a huge security risk.