The congestion in the camps is affecting every refugee. Women and children queue under the burning sun every day for water. © UNHCR/E.Hockstein

News Story, 12 May 2010

Dadaab is struggling as UNHCR raises alert on Somalia’s worsening situation

The situation in Somalia is deteriorating rapidly. Last year more than 120,000 Somalis fled from fighting and violence to seek refuge in neighboring countries, mainly Kenya.  UNHCR and its partners are struggling to respond to the protection and assistance needs of more than half a million Somali refugees in the region. There are also 1.4 million internally displaced in Somalia. Due to security risks it is very difficult to reach some of them and provide the assistance that is sorely needed.

The situation in the three sprawling refugee camps in Dadaab, Kenya, is particularly dire. Dadaab, 90 kilometres from the Somalian border, is one of the world's oldest, largest and most dramatically overcrowded refugee sites where there are growing fears of even more arrivals soon. Built 20 years ago for 90,000, there are now three times as many Somali refugees living in the camps. Water is scarce, land is filled to its very limits, health care and education simply cannot meet the needs of almost 300,000 Somali refugees. Half of them are children.

UNHCR has launched two supplementary appeals to address the increasing needs in Somalia and four neighbouring countries, as well as to fund the extension of one of the camps in Dadaab, Ifo. The emergency assistance in Ifo focuses on relieving the overcongestion. UNHCR will also use these funds to open two new camps for Somali refugees - one in Yemen and another in Djibouti. Additional funds are also needed for registration and legal assistance, complementary and supplementary feeding, and provision of basic aid items - especially for the hundreds of thousands of displaced inside Somalia.

This year alone, more than 37,000 Somalis sought asylum in the region and further afield. Most refugees arrived from Mogadishu and southern Somalia. The unfolding crisis is further compounded by severe drought conditions, poverty, food insecurity and periodic heavy flooding in the Horn of Africa. During the first two months of 2010, 1567 Somalis sought asylum in the Nordic countries.

New UNHCR Eligibility guidelines to assessing asylum claims by Somalis

In the beginning of May 2010 UNHCR issued new guidelines on the protection of people fleeing Somalia. The guidelines are intended to promote a consistent approach to the protection needs of persons from Somalia.

It is UNHCR’s view that asylum seekers from central and southern Somalia are in need of international protection. Those who do not meet the criteria for refugee status under the 1951 Convention or the OAU Convention should benefit from complementary forms of international protection, as applicable in situations of generalized violence or armed conflict.

UNHCR considers that an internal flight or relocation alternative in southern and central Somalia is not available for any Somali. Furthermore, UNHCR considers that an internal flight or relocation alternative in Somaliland and Puntland is generally not available for any Somali not originating from the respective territory.

The guidelines can be found here.
www.unhcr.org/refworld