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Africa Horn
Refugees in Kenya hit by US travel ban after years of waiting for asylum
2017-01-31
Hundreds of Somali refugees in Kenya who were days from travelling to the US to start new lives under a longstanding resettlement programme have been told they cannot travel,
...for 120 days while new vetting procedurs are worked out. After that they'll have to be revetted, and then will be permitted to move as originally planned -- unless they don't pass the vetting, of course...
after Donald Trump’s executive order banned migrants from seven Muslim-majority countries for three months.

The refugees, who have all been rigorously screened by US and UN officials, have waited for between seven and 10 years for their resettlement to be approved and organised.
Define "rigorously screened"...
Some had already checked in for the flight to their new homes in the US when they were told they would not be allowed to board the plane. Others had travelled to Nairobi with children ready to leave.

“These are people who have packed their bags, emptied their bank accounts, sold all their goods and said their goodbyes. Then they hear they are not going to the US after all,” said one aid worker in Nairobi.

In all, up to 26,000 people who hoped to travel to the US have been hit by the new measure. The total includes those cleared for imminent travel, as well as those whose applications are under review.
The 26,000 should return to Somalia. Move to a protected zone and work to rebuild life there. Europe, the US and the UN can provide some funding. Perhaps we could get the Italians and the British to provide police protection. The best place for Somali refugees is Somalia. It's their homeland and their culture.
Representatives from UN agencies in the Kenyan capital are scheduled to meet local government officials on Tuesday in an attempt to resolve the problem, and aid agencies are organising counselling for distraught families.

Approximately 3,000 refugees are scheduled to be resettled in the US from camps in northern Kenya this year, the majority from Dadaab, a sprawling tent city where an estimated 300,000 Somalis live. Many of those at the camp had arrived on Friday - the day Trump signed his executive order to restrict Somali refugees and immigrants entering the US.

There are now fears that even those cleared for a new life in the US may face a return to Somalia, a war-torn country where Islamist militants have launched attacks on a multinational military force trying to bring stability and international agencies have warned of famine.

Kenyan authorities have pledged to shut the Dadaab camp and send its inhabitants back to Somalia as soon as May, only weeks after the temporary ban imposed by Trump’s executive order expires.

“We are refugees, we cannot return back to our country, this host country of Kenya is pushing us to move out and the US president does not want us in his country. What can we do? Nothing. If he does not want Muslims, then we hope God will help us,” Ganey said.
You can return to your country.
Ganey has lived in Dadaab since civil war broke out in Somalia in 1991, and applied for a place in the US refugee resettlement programme seven years ago. After a process of rigorous screening by UN and US officials, his clearance for immigration came through last October.
Twenty-five years at the camp? He's not a citizen of Somalia, he's a citizen of Dadaab...
As many as 10,000 Somalis residing all over Africa were to be resettled in the US this year, according to the US State Department. The total was a slight increase on the previous year. Almost all are Muslim.
Posted by:Steve White

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