UNHCR provides information on voluntary repatriation to Somalia

The UN refugee agency has started providing information on voluntary repatriation to Somali refugees in the Kenyan camps as part of efforts to ease congestions and insecurity incidents in northern Kenya.The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that its staff is available at all agency offices in the camps to answer questions about return to Somalia. “So far, interest among refugees has been low and no significant return movements have been reported,” the UNHCR said in its Situation Report released in Nairobi on Tuesday. The UN refugee agency said the latest development is an outcome of the meeting with the refugee community about future returns to Somalia that was initiated by the Kenyan government in late November 2012.President Mwai Kibaki in November last year called on UN agencies and international organizations working in Somalia to relocate to the liberated areas and directly provide humanitarian assistance to Somalis living there. Kibaki had also appealed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to mobilize all relevant agencies to embark on relocating the refugees living in Kenya to liberated areas of Somalia noting that the situation created by the presence of over 650,000 refugees in Daadab camp in Kenya was untenable. Kibaki said the East African nation was fully committed to the restoration of peace and security in the Horn of Africa nation which has undergone political transformation in the recent past.Kenya is also hosting nearly half a million refugees from Somalia and has delayed their repatriation until the security situation in the country improves further. Currently the country hosts some 630,000 refugees, of whom more than half a million are from neighboring Somalia. August 2012 marked a historic political watershed for modern- day Somalia with the swearing-in of the country’s first formal parliament in more than 20 years. The event brought to an end the so-called Somali “transition”, which had begun with the 2004 launch of a UN-backed interim government after Somalis had been without a functioning government since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.According to the report, the UNHCR and the refugee community have established a number of safe homes for persons at risk of becoming victims of gender-based violence. The homes are residences of community members trained in psychological first aid, referral guidelines and services available for those in danger. The volunteers receive no remuneration, but are given some material assistance that will enable them to help others. The Kenyan government mid December last year stopped registration of refugees and asylum seekers mainly from Somalia in urban areas with immediate effect due to insecurity incidents across the country.Agencies