Kenya orders review of refugee list to curb double registration

The Kenyan government has ordered fresh review of the list of refugees in Dadaab camp in northeast region to help curb double registration and also weed out impostors.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery said there are many cases of double registration of refugees, noting that by clearing such individuals from the register, the Dadaab Refugee Camp "will be left with bona fide refugees thus deserving the refugee".

The exercise of removing the double registered persons from the register commences on Dec. 19 and ends on Dec. 31, Nkaiserry said in a statement issued in Nairobi on Monday.

The double registered cases comprise of refugees who have irregularly registered as Kenyans on one hand, and on the other, Kenyans who have registered as refugees.

The CS said this is an offense under the Registration of Persons Act, the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act and the Refugee Act 2006.

"Those living outside the camp, should report at the nearest Deputy Commissioner's office while those at the camp should report to the office of the Deputy County Commissioner at the camp for the exercise," Nkaissery said.

He said the affected persons who will not have presented themselves to the designated offices at the expiry of the deadline on Dec. 31 will be arrested and prosecuted as provided for by the law.

The directive comes after the government decided to delay by six months the closure of the world's largest refugee camp after calls by the UN and aid groups to postpone it on humanitarian grounds.

Kenya which has since postponed the closure of Dadaab refugee camp says it has put solid measures in place to fast-track repatriation of Somalia refugees and their re-integration in their native country.

UNHCR has supported people's returns from Dadaab for years and in June, it worked with Kenya and Somalia to devise an action plan to that effect.

A survey between August and October found that 283,558 refugees were living at Dadaab, 58,000 fewer than in the past.

Dadaab, currently home to an estimated 350,000, was opened in 1991 as a temporary shelter for people fleeing civil war in neighboring Somalia.

In May this year, the Kenyan government cited security concerns as it announced that the vast camp in northeast Kenya near the Somali border would be shut down. Endit