Kenya plans to close refugee camps over terror fears

International aid groups are blasting the Kenyan government for planning to shut down two refugee camps, including one of the world’s largest, without an alternative plan to house the more than 400,000 refugees currently living in the country.

The government already dissolved the Department of Refugee Affairs, which worked with humanitarian groups that help meet the refugees’ basic needs. But it has not announced when the camps will close.

“The government of Kenya acknowledges that the decision will have adverse effects on the lives of the refugees and therefore the international community must collectively take responsibility on humanitarian needs that will arise out of this action,” Karanja Kibicho, principal secretary at the Interior Ministry, said in a written statement.

Kenya has hosted refugees for nearly 25 years. The Dadaab camp in eastern Kenya houses more than 328,000 refugees, mostly Somalis escaping the violence of terror group al-Shabaab. The Kakuma camp, which hosts 190,000 refugees, has become home to many South Sudanese who fled their country’s ongoing civil war.

“It looks like the Kenyan government took its own decision regardless of whether there are other alternatives for those refugees,” said Abukar Sanei, executive director of the Somalia-based Center for Policy Analysis and Research.

Kenyan security forces claim the camps have served as breeding grounds for Somali-based terror group al-Shabaab, which has targeted Kenya for its role in peacekeeping efforts in Somalia. In 2013, Kenya’s National Assembly Administration and National Security Committee suggested closing the camps, but members of Parliament denied the proposal. Last year, Kenya made a similar move to close the camps, but pressure from the international community hindered the plan.

Two assailants from al-Shabaab’s 2013 attack on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall lived in Kakuma, according to Kenyan security officials. But the actions of a few refugees should not impact the lives of all refugees, Sanei said.

“We can’t say all the refugees are a threat to the Kenyan government and all Kenyan people,” he added. “There may be some elements but they may not necessarily all be from the refugees. They can infiltrate the [Somali] border even though Kenyan forces are at the border.”

Human Rights Watch said the government has an obligation to protect the refugees and can find other ways to ensure the country’s safety.

“Rather than abandon people it still recognizes as refugees, the Kenyan government should appropriately prosecute those people who have committed crimes and maintain efforts to protect refugees according to international standards,” Bill Frelick, refugee rights director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Doctors Without Borders also appealed to the Kenyan government to reconsider its plan, as hundreds of thousands will be forced to return to war-torn regions without access to medical and humanitarian assistance.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.