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Kenyan authorities have agreed with the Somali government and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to form a 12-member commission to fast-track the repatriation of Somali refugees from Kenya.
"We agreed that the three of us are going to continuously meet to ensure that we expedite the repatriation of Somalia refuges from Kenya," Kenyan Foreign Affairs Secretary Amina Mohammed told reporters following a meeting with her Somali counterpart and the UNHCR's regional representative.
"We have agreed to ask the UNHCR to convene a pledge conference, at which time we will be asking donors for resources that we will use to expedite the repatriation of refugees," she added.
According to UNHCR figures, there are 423,153 registered Somali refugees in Kenya, including 335,565 in the northern Dadaab camp alone.
There are also 55,432 registered Somali refugees in Kakuma camp and 32,156 in capital Nairobi.
Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto said last week that his country had given the UNHCR three months to move Somali refugees from northern Kenya's Dadaab camp to locations in Somalia.
Mohammed said the three parties had formed a commission to help fast-track the process.
"We have agreed to do it as quickly as possible. We will probably do it before the three months are over, or maybe go over that period a little, depending on available resources," she said.
UNHCR Kenya spokesman Emmanuel Nyabera told The Anadolu Agency earlier Tuesday about a decision to form a 12-member tripartite commission "tasked with ensuring the smooth relocation of Somalis."
One year ago, Kenya, Somalia and the UNHCR signed an agreement on the voluntary repatriation of Somali refugees.
According to Secretary Mohammed, 200,000 Somali refugees came to Kenya in 2011 to escape hunger in their native country. Since then, she said, some 50,000 of them had returned home.
"They did not wait for repatriation or any support," she said.
"That's another signal that Somalia is stabilizing; that there are areas in Somalia that refugees can settle in," added the top diplomat.
Secretary Mohammed said about 20,000 non-Somali refugees in the Dadaab camp would also be relocated.
"They will be moved to the Kakuma refugee camp and Dadaab will be closed," she said in response to a question by an AA reporter.
In the past, Nairobi has claimed that Somalia's Al-Shabaab militant group was using Dadaab as a launch pad for staging attacks inside Kenya.
At least 148 people, mostly students, were killed on April 2 following a 14-hour hostage crisis – for which Al-Shabaab later claimed responsibility – at a university in northern Kenya.
The Al-Qaeda-linked group has vowed to carry out attacks in Kenya as long as the East African country maintains troops in neighboring Somalia.
-Grateful-
Somali Foreign Minister Abdulsalam Omer, for his part, said Somalia was ready to welcome the refugees back.
"We are very grateful to the host communities and the Kenyan people and government for the long years that these refuges have been here," he said at the press conference.
"On behalf of the Federal Republic of Somalia and the Somali people, we are ready to receive our people; we are ready for them to come home," Omer asserted.
"We want Kenyans to understand that 20 years is a long time to stay in a refugee camp," he said. "It was not by choice."
The top diplomat added: "We will make every effort to help the refugees come back home to rebuild their lives and participate in the reconstruction of Somalia."
He went on to vow that the repatriation process would be carried out quickly and humanely.
UNHCR regional representative Raouf Mazou, meanwhile, appealed for support for the repatriation process.
"We believe the process will take place voluntarily in safe and dignified conditions," he said.
"Somalia needs support to ensure that those who return will have access to healthcare and education, among other basic needs," the UN official added.
www.aa.com.tr/en - Nayrobi
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