Kenya relocates 690 refugees to Kakuma camp

UNHCR on Sunday and Monday relocated to Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya 690 Somali refugees registered last week in Mombasa when the Kenyan government closed St Ann's, an unofficial Somali refugee camp in the coastal city. A UNHCR spokeswoman told IRIN on Tuesday that a convoy of 10 buses, one or two trucks transporting the refugees' personal belongings, UNHCR and police escort vehicles left Mombasa on Sunday and was understood to have arrived on Tuesday. She said there had been talk of up to 2,500 Somali refugees in Mombasa that the government wanted moved to either Kakuma or Dadaab camps, but that the weekend's relocation was a "one-time assistance to the Kenyan government" of those 690 Somalis who had come forward to be relocated, and UNHCR had no plans for additional relocation operations from Mombasa.

Kenyan cabinet minister Shariff Nassir on Sunday warned those refugees who had ridden rather than be relocated that the government would catch up with them. "Refugees should come forward before being sought out by police," the 'East African' newspaper on Monday quoted Nassir as saying.