UNHCR Working To Reverse Farole Deportation Of IDPS

[Cowke]

Ethiopian migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers deported from Bossasso, Somalia, last week recuperate on a street in Galkayo after a harrowing 30-hour journey standing up in a truck.

 

 

Somalia: UNHCR works to reverse deportations from Puntland

 

News Stories, 28 July 2010

© UNHCR Somalia

 

GALKAYO, Somalia, July 28 (UNHCR) – Abdirahman was pushing a heavy wheelbarrow under the scorching morning sun of northeastern Somalia last week, just trying to earn a pittance to buy bread and tea to fill his growling stomach, when policemen grabbed the Ethiopian asylum-seeker and hurled him onto a truck.

 

"I suddenly heard people screaming in the street and two policemen grabbed me by force," the tall 32-year-old says. "I had no idea of what was happening, or where they were taking me, or why."

 

He was one of nearly 900 young men deported from the port town of Bossasso by the government of northeastern Somalia, known as Puntland, in the aftermath of killings of police and local government officials between 18 and 21 July.

 

Under the resulting security crackdown, authorities of the autonomous state in the Horn of Africa decided to deport all people it labeled "foreigners" from Bossasso, where Abdirahman had been working construction since arriving from Ethiopia a year ago. Almost 90 Ethiopian migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and more than 800 internally displaced people from Mogadishu and other areas of South Central Somalia were detained and then deported to Galkayo and further south.

 

"What has happened to these people is unacceptable," said a UNHCR protection officer in Galkayo. "We strongly feel that the government should respect their rights to return to their families in Bossasso, and we are doing all we can to convince (the government) to allow them to go back immediately."

 

Somalia faces one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today. It hosts over 25,000 refugees and asylum seekers – mainly from Ethiopia – in addition to 1.4 million internally displaced people. Half the people in the country urgently need humanitarian help just to survive, at the very time that fighting and lawlessness make it difficult for humanitarian agencies to serve them.

 

Now wondering what his future holds in Galkayo, Abdirahman told of the harrowing 30-hour journey from Bossasso, standing up in the back of a truck packed with too many other deportees to count accurately.

 

"Just before starting the journey to a destination that was unknown to us, many of us were shaved with a razor," he says. "I imagine that it was a way to make all of us recognizable. I felt so humiliated."

 

"None of us knew what was going on," he continues. "We kept on asking the police why they arrested us, but there was no answer to our questions. Many people around me were crying and screaming as they were taken away without having a chance to talk to their wives and children. The wife of one of the men next to me had delivered a baby boy just a few hours before and the man had just gone out to look for some milk for the baby and food for his wife."

 

A UNHCR field officer – part of the emergency team who helped the deportees at the Galkayo police station – confirms that "by the time the deportees arrived in Galkayo, they did not even have the strength to walk. Many of them collapsed on the ground. They were hungry and devastated from the journey." UNHCR and its partners provided food, medical assistance and basic relief items to the deportees.

 

Abdirahman spent the night in a squalid cell with many others before being released the next day. He is now one of more than 50 Ethiopians who are being screened and assisted by the UNHCR team in Galkayo.

 

The asylum-seekers are being registered by UNHCR and the local authorities while negotiations continue with the aim of allowing them to return to their families in Bossasso.

 

'I just hope this nightmare will end soon," says Abdirahman. "Like many others here, I am starting to hate life."

 

By Roberta Russo

In Galkayo, Somalia

[Cowke]

Ethiopian refugees and asylum seekers deported from Bossasso receive assistance from UNHCR in Galkayo. Somalia.

 

 

 

UNHCR alarmed at treatment of displaced Somalis in their country and beyond

 

News Stories, 23 July 2010

 

© UNHCR/R.Russo

Ethiopian refugees and asylum seekers deported from Bossasso receive assistance from UNHCR in Galkayo. Somalia.

 

GALKAYO, Somalia, July 23 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency said Friday it was alarmed by a deterioration in the treatment of uprooted Somali civilians, both in Somalia and the surrounding region. Current conditions in Somalia are particularly dire. Over the past three weeks alone, some 18,000 people have been displaced, 112 killed and around 250 wounded according to field reports from partners and agencies on the ground.

 

Against the background of recent terrorist attacks, UNHCR has noted growing numbers of incidents of xenophobia, round-ups and deportations of displaced Somalis. "This increasingly negative perception of uprooted Somalis gives us cause for concern over the wider refugee protection environment in the region and the rest of Africa. We are receiving frequent reports of verbal and physical harassment in communities as well as arrests, arbitrary detention, extortion and even push-backs of Somali refugees," a UNHCR spokesperson said.

 

This negativity is having a corroding effect on the traditionally positive relations between the host communities and Somali refugees, many of whom have spent decades in exile. In a number of countries, more and more Somali refugees have been approaching UNHCR offices requesting registration or renewal of their refugee identity documents.

 

Of particular worry is the action by the local authorities of Somalia's Puntland region in pushing back more than 900 internally displaced people (IDPs) to conflict-stricken central Somalia on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

 

In Galkayo, where some of the deportees, mainly Somali men between the ages of 18 and 25, are being held, UNHCR has been facilitating an inter-agency humanitarian response, providing food, water, medical assistance and blankets.

 

"We are calling on the Puntland authorities to halt these push-backs," the spokesperson said. "It is UNHCR's view that people fleeing southern and central Somalia are in need of international protection and that involuntary returns to that part of the country place people's lives at risk," he added.

 

UNHCR recognizes the legitimate security concerns of governments and supports security screening and registration to provide enhanced protection to refugees and better cater to their needs. Only civilians can be refugees and a person who continues to pursue armed action, violence and terror in the country of asylum, cannot be considered a refugee.

 

The refugee agency is also supporting the initiatives of Somali refugee communities, who are clearly distancing themselves from violence. UNHCR encourages open dialogue about perceptions and responsible reporting on refugee and asylum issues at all times.

 

Somalis are fleeing years of violence, and are themselves victims of terror and conflict, which has taken thousands of lives and displaced millions. Indiscriminate fighting continues, with utter disregard for the safety and well being of the civilian population. With nearly half of the population dependent on aid, Somalia is one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

 

More than 1.4 million people are internally displaced in Somalia and over 600,000 Somalis live as refugees in the neighbouring countries. After Afghanistan and Iraq, Somalia is the third largest refugee-producing country in the world.

 

By Roberta Russo in Galkayo, Somalia

[NASSIR]

Very Sad indeed.

[NASSIR]

Originally posted by Nassir:

 

One key point of resistance we must overcome is the chain of division within our aritificial borders....a psychological chain that has kept us locked in the dark. It is this societal ill that accelerate the decline of our brain cells, makes the experienced sound novice and gives the ignorant unearned chance to lead a country in ruin, a divided society yearning for solidarity and viable institutions (cultural, economic, education, medicine, polity, etc.)

 

Every Somali

should feel free to reside anywhere in SOMALIA and be involved in any developments or participate in any local issues that matter to his or her residence.

But when a Somali from the south feels alienated and unwanted in another region and when a northern Somali speaks as though he or she shares nothing in common with their people, our existance as a nation is so in deep trouble. We have institutionalized discrimination and segregation.....

 

Federalism perpetuates our social division. It is not a system designed for a homogeneous nation unless we adopt the American system of governance in which the power to coin money, make treaties and create an army is vested with the federal government whereas the power to create law enforcement, provide for education, zoning adminstration and issuance of driver's and business licenses is vested with the state. Still, where to draw borders will be a thorn issue to deal with as tribal lands overlap and conflict. The Security Council of the United Nations should continue to support the territorial integrity of Somalia and a strong central or federal government. Our constitution must guarantee every Somali citizen equal rights as to whereever he or she wishes to run for an office, buy home or businesses. I know for sure all of these tribal regions that agitate for secession or self-autonomy will be back to the practical reality that the world wants to see: one nation under one flag, not a government within government. [/QB]

[Cowke]

one flag one nation is an excellent idea lakinse another 100 years baan sidan ku jireyna ee lagama gudbeyo.

 

What i mean is somalis dont trust each other anymore. After 20 years of war, lots of death, lots of corruption etc ppl ae very weary of one and another now.

 

Federalism is a way to give guarantees to people "that the govt wont be just ruled by 1 clan or 1 region" but shared across thru-out every region/state/city/tuulo/degmo.

 

Cuqdada ayaa fogatay in somalia and it's irreversible runti sxb. 1 nation and 1 flag is good idea but its not feasible in the somalia that we live today. Today is not 1960 when national fever was high. Today is 2010 after 20 years of killing each other dont expect we will just cuddle and get along and trust each other to have 1 govt again.

 

1 govt again is possible after people see peace and stability for a long time. After this generation is dead and noone remembers the war and terrible stuff. But for us to get to this stage only federal solution is possible. Sure it might cause ppl to feel like their outsiders when they go to another region but no system is perfect federalism is the closest most realistic solution available in somalia today.

[NASSIR]

^don't be too pessimistic saxib!