By Chris Mgidu
NAIROBI, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Friday called on the international community to continue supporting voluntary repatriation of Somali refugees as a sustainable solution to the crisis.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaiserry said Kenya believes that there is no better place like home and, thus the saying "East or West home is best" should be the clarion call to restore dignity to the Somali people.
"In order to restore dignity to the Somali refugees, Kenya recommends and supports voluntary repatriation as the best durable and sustainable solution," he told the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Council of Ministers in Nairobi.
"We as a country have learnt that refugee status is a degrading and dehumanizing status any human being can be subjected to for even a single day. It is therefore time that the region finds durable solutions for the Somali people, who have lived in dehumanizing conditions for more than a quarter a century," Nkaiserry added.
His remarks came after the UN refugee agency said Wednesday it has repatriated some 57,329 Somali refugees in Kenya since the return exercise begun in December 2014.
The UN agency said out of the figure, some 17,359 refugees who have been living at the world's largest human settlement in northeast Kenya were supported in 2017 alone.
Nkaissery who urged the East Africa region to promote self-reliance of returnees inside Somalia, stressed the need to adhere to the principle of international burden and responsibility sharing.
He said the refugee problem is an international problem and, therefore, requires international cooperation in finding solutions.
"A peaceful and stable Somalia means a stable region and this provides the most durable solution to the Somali refugees," he said.
The CS said the international community needs to find effective, fair and sustainable mechanism for burden sharing with regard to asylum seekers and refugees by fulfilling their pledges to support refugee hosting nations in the region to address the needs of refugees as well as those of host communities.
Kenya will on Saturday host an IGAD summit that will bring together Eastern African Heads of State to discuss the situation of Somali refugees in the region, as the threat of pervasive drought and food insecurity in Somalia looms.
The east African nation's role as host is spoiled by its continued insistence on closing Dadaab refugee camp, host to over 300,000 Somali refugees, by May.
In order for IGAD to respond effectively and find long term solutions to the Somali refugees, Nkaissery said the bloc needs to address the root causes of forced displacement of populations in the IGAD region by concentrating efforts in strengthening political dialogue and enhance mutual cooperation in peace building in Somalia and the region.
"We must as a region put measures in place to address further environmental degradation and also restore degraded environment in refugee hosting areas. This is because environmental degradation is a source of conflict over resources," he said.
The Kenyan official urged the international community to open and expand their asylum space for the Somali refugees on the basis of resettlement as one of the durable solutions for refugees since IGAD member states are already shouldering a huge burden.
