Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/index.php:52) in /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1794 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/index.php:52) in /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1794 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/index.php:52) in /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1794 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/index.php:52) in /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1794 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/index.php:52) in /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1794 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/index.php:52) in /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1794 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/index.php:52) in /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1794 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/index.php:52) in /customers/a/c/1/hadalsame.com/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1794 {"id":29668,"date":"2019-06-28T10:51:03","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T09:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hadalsame.com\/?p=29668"},"modified":"2019-06-28T10:51:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T09:51:03","slug":"if-you-pay-youll-go-dadaab-residents-claim-they-must-pay-bribes-to-go-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hadalsame.com\/2019\/06\/28\/if-you-pay-youll-go-dadaab-residents-claim-they-must-pay-bribes-to-go-home\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018If you pay, you\u2019ll go\u2019: Dadaab residents claim they must pay bribes to go home"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Hadalsame) 28 June 2019<\/strong><\/span> – Four years ago, Asha made what seemed like an impossible decision. She knew the journey from Kenya\u2019s Dadaab refugee camp back to her native Somalia was risky.<\/p>\n

But after an attack by the Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab, the Kenyan government had threatened to close the vast, sprawling camp for security reasons. Asha feared for her family\u2019s safety if Kenyan soldiers moved in to evict them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to be gone before the rough-up,\u201d recalls Asha. \u201cI didn\u2019t want my girls raped by [the] military forcing them on buses. I wanted to protect myself too.\u2013<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were looking for a way out.\u201d
\nIn Dadaab, all they had was a makeshift shelter on a patch of sandy ground. In an isolated region, there was little opportunity; Asha was tempted by the money they would receive to restart their lives. Under an ongoing voluntary repatriation scheme, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) was offering returnees about $80 (\u00a362) a person, as well as the first flight of Asha\u2019s life. To Asha and her children, it seemed like a fortune.<\/p>\n

However, even going back to a warzone involves greasing some palms, she says . Asha, whose name has been changed at her request for fear of retaliation, claims she had to hand over one family member\u2019s repatriation money to be accepted for return, even though the UNHCR says all services are free. She says she paid it in two instalments: an initial amount at a UNHCR field office, the rest to an interpreter working with the agency.<\/p>\n

Asha\u2019s experience is echoed by dozens of refugees who spoke on condition of anonymity for this investigation. They say corruption is endemic in east African refugee camps and implicate both UNHCR staff and employees of partner organisations. Refugees at the camp have fled war or dictatorships in search of security, but many say everything \u2013 from gaining refugee status and receiving food rations, to being chosen for resettlement to another country or even repatriation back to a warzone \u2013 involves the expectation of a bribe.<\/p>\n

The UNHCR denies allegations of widespread corruption.
\n\u201cThe overwhelming majority of our 16,000 personnel are deeply committed professionals, many of whom are working in difficult environments, sometimes risking their own safety,\u201d said the agency in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs with other organisations, we are not immune to risk or failure on the part of individuals. This is why we have a solid safeguarding structure, which has been further strengthened in the last two years, and which we continuously seek to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between 2014 and January 2019, nearly 80,000 refugees returned from Dadaab to Somalia. In the same period, cash grants for returnees rose to between $150 and $230 for every family member \u2013 some handed over shortly before departure, the rest following arrival in Somalia.<\/p>\n

In March this year, the Kenyan government once again announced it was closing Dadaab, giving the UNHCR a six-month deadline and asking them to \u201cexpedite relocation of the refugees and asylum-seekers residing therein\u201d. Somali refugees say they\u2019re certain the announcement will lead to an increase in the exploitation of people deciding to return.
\nIn interviews at the camp in October 2018, 11 refugees alleged that UNHCR staff and people working with them demanded bribes for repatriation of between $20 and $200 a person for a large family.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you pay, you\u2019ll go to the top of the list,\u201d says Asha.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me it sounds like a curse for an agency worker to take money from a poor refugee going to a warzone,\u201d says a member of the Somali Bantu ethnic group, claiming he knows people who have paid and is considering it himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey charge $20 per person. Once you pay that, you get your name posted,\u201d he says, referring to a list announcing who\u2019s travelling next.<\/p>\n

Another mother says refugees even hand over money on the airstrip, right before boarding Somalia-bound planes. A middleman will pretend to escort them, lifting their luggage and taking the cash. If they don\u2019t pay, the middleman will \u201ccreate chaos,\u201d she says \u2013 \u201c[he will] say there\u2019s a problem and bring them back\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about accusations of bribery in the repatriation programme, UNHCR Dadaab\u2019s repatriation officer Woja Apuuli said he had not heard of this happening, and did not see why it would be necessary. \u201cAll services at UNHCR are free of charge,\u201d Apuuli points out.<\/p>\n

Refugees who witness misconduct can lodge complaints, which are then investigated, says UNHCR spokesperson Cecile Pouilly: \u201cIn Kenya, for instance, refugees can report misconduct of any staff member of UNHCR, a partner or a contractor, by email, by filling in a webform, by using complaints boxes that are available at all UNHCR offices or by calling our toll-free helpline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past two years, Donald Trump\u2019s travel ban has shut down the possibility of resettlement for Dadaab\u2019s Somali refugees, thousands of whom were in the process of being considered for relocation to the US.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme has drastically cut rations in Dadaab in recent years, citing insufficient funding. As they grow increasingly desperate, many refugees are entering into debt to feed their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the last three years, there\u2019s no resettlement [to western countries],\u201d says another single mother. \u201cRepatriation is the most corrupt department, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Signs placed around Dadaab say: \u201cReturn is your choice\u201d. But many refugees feel their days in Kenya are numbered.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, we are in an open jail,\u201d says one man.
\nA Bantu refugee who works as a UNHCR contractor says he has reported concerns about exploitation in the repatriation process. \u201cThe biggest problem is if you complain to UNHCR about this corruption you will have problems,\u201d he says, adding that refugees worry they\u2019ll be cut off from services.
\nAsha\u2019s 2015 return to Mogadishu, Somalia\u2019s febrile capital, was short-lived. Within a year of her arrival, she was injured by shrapnel from a bomb that exploded near her house. Like more than 2,000 other refugees in the past five years, the family returned to Dadaab. But the feeling of insecurity there has left them with no hope and no chance for a future.<\/p>\n

Seated on a woven mat in the shade beside her shelter, Asha describes how her hungry children only get two meals a day – porridge in the morning and a meagre dinner at night – and says the corruption she has witnessed makes it feel even more unfair. \u201cUNHCR is an international organisation and I fear it\u2019s not aware about this, not fully,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is greedy individuals and opportunists who don\u2019t care about human suffering and want to get rich on poor people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hadalsame Media<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Hadalsame) 28 June 2019 – Four years ago, Asha made what seemed like an impossible decision. She knew the journey from Kenya\u2019s Dadaab refugee camp back to her native Somalia was risky. But after an attack by the Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab, the Kenyan government had threatened to close the vast, sprawling camp for security […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29669,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hadalsame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/b-215.jpg?fit=620%2C372&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Xl2P-7Iw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hadalsame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29668"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hadalsame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hadalsame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hadalsame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hadalsame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hadalsame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29670,"href":"https:\/\/www.hadalsame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29668\/revisions\/29670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hadalsame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hadalsame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hadalsame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hadalsame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}