Kenya halts Somali asylum seekers

Several thousand asylum seekers fleeing recent fighting in Somalia have been stranded for days near the border with neighbouring Kenya which has blocked their entry, aid workers said on Wednesday.

According to local community workers in the Dobley area of Somalia (about 30 km from the border), the people trying to enter Kenya were mainly women and children.

"We understand that there are security concerns, but we hope that the right of those seeking asylum will be respected," said Amanda Di Lorenzo, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA-Somalia).

The condition of the asylum seekers, she added, was unknown because no humanitarian agency had been able to reach them. "Access is pretty limited in that area," said Di Lorenzo.

The Kenyan authorities have beefed up security along the border, citing security concerns. But according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), some 394 Somalis who had crossed the border since fighting flared up in their country about a week ago, have also been sent back.

The Somalis were at a reception centre in the Kenyan border post of Liboi (15 km from the border), awaiting registration and transfer to a refugee camp in the Dadaab area of Garissa District, Northeastern Province, according to Millicent Mutuli, regional spokeswoman for UNHCR.

"The reception centre was empty this morning," Mutuli said on Wednesday. "The refugees have been sent back by the authorities."

Those sent back included 194 refugees who were ready for transportation to refugees camps, which already host an estimated 160,000 refugees from Somalia.

The UNHCR has written to the Kenyan immigration ministry seeking clarification on whether government policy on receiving refugees from Somalia had changed, Mutuli said.

There was a heavy police and military presence in Liboi on Wednesday, but Kenyan officials were not immediately available for comment on the decision to send away the refugees.

Kenya has stepped up security along its border with Somalia in a bid to prevent militias loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) entering the country. The UIC was defeated by a combined force of Ethiopian troops and soldiers of the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

The TFG, which prior to the Ethiopian intervention only controlled the south-central town of Baidoa, where it was based, has said it has now taken control of the entire country after the UIC - which had established its influence in much of the country since June 2006 - was routed in December.

"All measures have been taken by the Kenyan government to ensure there will be no spillover of the conflict in Somalia into Kenya," said government spokesman, Alfred Mutua.

"The government has put the necessary security measures in place along the common border," he added, as Kenyan police said they had arrested on Monday eight Somali militiamen who entered the country through Liboi.

In a related development, Somlia's President Abdullahi Yusuf flew into the Kenyan port city of Mombasa on Tuesday where he held talks with his Kenya counterpart Mwai Kibaki.

The two leaders discussed the situation in Somalia with Kibaki urging both parties in the conflict to seek a settlement through dialogue, a statement said.

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