Sweep of aliens "puts refugees at risk" - HRW

Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned on Saturday that the Kenyan government's current crackdown on illegal aliens was liable to put refugees at risk, and raised concerns about its commitment to human rights and refugee law.

The US-based organisation expressed particular anxiety at the Kenyan government's alleged threat to repatriate hundreds of Ethiopian and Somali refugees rounded up in a police sweep in the capital, Nairobi, on 30 May. Many of these refugees, it said, could face arbitrary arrest, torture, and other serious abuses in their countries of origin.

"The Kenyan government must not return people to the hands of their abusers," said Alison Parker, refugee policy fellow at HRW. "International refugee law prohibits sending people back without a proper hearing to determine whether they will face persecution on their return."

The arrests followed the recent mysterious landing of an aircraft at Wilson Airport, Nairobi, with some 20 Somalis, allegedly being smuggled into Kenya for a fee - an incident which sparked a political row about the possible violation of Kenyan airspace and the need for increased control of aliens.

The Kenyan police told IRIN last week that they planned to continue with a "coordinated" search operation in the Nairobi suburb of Eastleigh, as part of efforts to crack down on "illegal aliens" and to ensure the removal of the refugee population living there to designated refugee camps as required by law.

Simon Kipkeu, the officer in charge of the police station in the Kasarani area of Nairobi, told IRIN that arrangements had been made to take those detainees who had produced valid refugee documents from office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees back to Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps in northwestern and northeastern Kenya respectively. Some 400 people who had no valid papers would be charged with being in the country illegally, he added.

"Refugees are not supposed to be in Nairobi, they should be in camps. They are not authorised to be on the streets. The law is very clear," Kipkeu said. "Some of them sell illegal firearms, which is a big threat to our people. Some can even be terrorists. We have a duty to protect our citizens but, at the same time, we sympathise with the refugees."

HRW warned on Saturday of the risk that Ethiopian refugees who had been picked up could face torture and persecution if they were repatriated from Kenya. It expressed particular concern over the situation of over 140 Ethiopian refugees of the Oromo ethnic group whom, it said, the Kenyan government planned to relocate to camps "in the remote northeast of the country [in Dadaab]".

It worried about the potential separation of children from their parents and that the move could serve to deny refugees in need, especially torture victims, the specialist medical care available in Nairobi.

HRW suggested that the current "sweep on foreigners" and denial to the UN refugee agency of "free access to the group" was not the first time the Kenyan authorities had flouted its obligations under international law. In an April 2002 report, HRW said, it had documented numerous instances in which refugees and asylum-seekers had been forcibly repatriated after being arrested by police.

Foreigners, including refugees, are often blamed for crime and insecurity, and targeted for "arbitrary arrest and detention", according to HRW. "Individual non-nationals are harassed and arrested on a daily basis in large cities, particularly in Nairobi," it said.

The rights body also expressed concern that refugees were being charged - for the first time - with the statutory offence of having failed to register with the Kenyan government. In fact, it said, the government had not registered refugees since 1991, when it handed over the processing of refugee applications to UNHCR.

In its 8 June statement, HRW called on the Kenyan government to properly assess the status of detainees before any repatriation, to put in place immigration policies that accord with international law, and to end "police harassment of refugees and asylum-seekers".