WUNRN
UNHCR - UN Refugee Agency
LOVE OF FAMILY, COUNTRY, DRAW EARLY
REFUGEES BACK TO SOMALIA FROM KENYA
DADAAB REFUGEE CAMP,
"My love for my family is calling me
back," says the soft-spoken young woman in a grey headscarf. "I miss
my family – my mother, my father, my brother, my sister and most of all, my
first-born, my nine-year-old boy, Hussein. My mother is keeping him"
She and her husband, Abdikadir Ibrahim
Abdi, 42, fled drought and instability in
"My mother said since the whole family
was leaving for
Now, with reports that her mother is ill,
Dhahiro feels she must go home to Kismayo, one of three regions included in the
pilot programme for assisted returns for refugees returning on their own to
Some 388,000 Somali refugees live in the
Dadaab refugee camp complex in north-eastern
Relative newcomers like Abdikadir and Dhahiro
are believed to be the most likely to want to go home under a pilot programme
whereby UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the World
Food Programme (WFP) and other partners will support refugees returning by
themselves to three areas – Baidoa, Luuq and Kismayo – beginning on January 1. Organized repatriation convoys may begin later as
conditions improve in certain parts of
This week, UNHCR will step up its
consultations with Somali refugees at refugee help desks in the five camps that
make up the Dadaab complex. Refugees will be able to inform UNHCR about their
interest in returning to
As a farmer, Abdikadir is looking forward
to being able once again to support his family, and not feeling like a beggar,
as he did as a refugee. "My country has resources," he says.
"God can assist me. The moment it rains, I can cultivate my fields and sustain
my family with the products from the farm."
Isho Madkar Issack, a 30-year-old mother of
four, says she is grateful to UNHCR for training her to become a midwife in
Dadaab – skills that
will help her rebuild her county when she joins the vanguard going back to
Others are not quite so eager. Nimo Mahat
Samatar says she, her husband and their four children would be willing to go
back to Luuq – but not immediately. "I want to be in the second phase," she
says. "I want other people to test and if they get there safely, then I will
go."
With the date for her departure less than a
month away, Dhahiro sits inside her traditional round Somali tukul (shelter)
and contemplates her homecoming with a mixture of emotions – patriotism and
worry for her mother and son. "It's my country," she says quietly.
"I love it so I'm going back."
As for the moment she finally sets eyes on
her beloved first born, Hussein: "I'm so anxious to see him. I love him
and am feeling lonely without him. I'm sure I'll shed tears and cry on
him."
By
Kitty McKinsey in Dadaab Refugee