MSF calls for solutions over Dadaab refugee crisis

Durable solutions are still not within reach for the more than 200,000 refugees even as state mulls over closure of camps, MSF project coordinator in Dadaab Jeroen Mathys says.

In a press statement on Wednesday, Mathys said it has been one year since Kenya announced it will close the refugee camps by end of June this year.

“Refugees in Dadaab are staring at a perfect storm. Humanitarian assistance remains way below what is needed.

"Also, the reverberating economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic along with soaring prices of essential commodities have nibbled away at people’s coping capacities,” he said.

Refugees in Dadaab say they are having to share their meagre resources with rising numbers of new arrivals in the camps.

The new arrivals have been forced to move in search of food and water as a drought ravages in East Africa.

However, the new arrivals cannot access services provided in the camps after Kenya stopped registering asylum seekers in 2016.

This year, MSFs outreach teams have reported some 105 new arrivals.

The persons in Dagahaley camp—one of three camps in Dadaab— are mostly from Somalia. Although this is most likely a tiny fraction of the overall numbers.

“Lack of clarity over the future of the camps has crippled humanitarian agencies’ ability to scale up assistance for refugees and host communities,” Mathys said.

He said many organisations are struggling to secure funding and plan activities for the future.

“Whatever progress is being made in moving towards integrating refugees in Kenya is being fast outpaced by new humanitarian needs,” Mathys said.

The coordinator said refugees have depleted the few options they had for topping up on the ever-reducing assistance.

Many refugee families have either lost livestock to drought or have been forced to sell them, so there is little milk available.

Food rations have also remained inadequate as a result of constant funding cuts.

Informal jobs in the camps are also few as economic activity is weak and humanitarian operations paralysed.

All these combined has led to a sharp increase in food insecurity.

Malnutrition admissions in MSF health centre in Dagahaley camp is on the rise.

"The numbers have more than doubled in February this year compared to last. The majority are children and pregnant women,” Mathys said.

He said mental health concerns in the camps have also increased drastically, particularly among young refugees, who lost out on education opportunities during the lockdown in the pandemic.

Some, he says, had to forgo scholarships and many have since dropped out altogether.

The camp closure announcement brought further uncertainty, heightening mental health concerns.

"As a result, substance abuse among the youth in the camps has increased and our teams continue to hear cases of attempted suicide among refugees,” Mathys said.

The new Refugee Act has shifted the focus from closing the camps to easing refugees’ integration in the country.

It has revived previously stalled efforts to work towards providing work opportunities and access to public services for refugees.

“We now urgently need strong political will and increased donor support to drive the process of refugee integration forward,” Dana Krause, MSF’s country director said.

She said Kenya should immediately announce that camps will not close and release a roadmap for integration to put an end to uncertainty among refugees.

Krause said Kenya and donor countries must double down on efforts to provide durable solutions for refugees.

"They must ensure the availability of predictable and timely humanitarian assistance to address critical needs and support refugees’ transition towards a dignified life," she said.

The director said the support should also be extended to the new arrivals in the camps.

"Donors must swiftly step-up support for humanitarian agencies and scale up assistance and protection for refugees before the humanitarian situation deteriorates even further,” Krause said.

She said after what has been a three-decade ordeal for the Dadaab refugees, "we cannot abandon them now."

“We, the international community, have a responsibility to push for integration to become a reality, so that refugee communities can leave the life of dependency behind,” the director said.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)