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Kenya Restricts Movement in Refugee Camps; Bonus: We Go Inside One of Kenya's Largest Camps

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Kenya Bans Entry to Two Refugee Camps Hosting 400,000 People

As part of a containment strategy against coronavirus, movement in and out of Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps is now restricted but UNHCR says this does not represent a “significant change” for the refugees. Movement passes out of the area was halted in March but now host communities are blocked from leaving the area altogether and movement into the area is restricted with humanitarian movement allowed on a case by case basis but aid entry is permissible. UNHCR has reportedly altered operations in both camps to avoid gatherings and plans to distribute two months food rations at once to reduce contact between residents and humanitarian workers. Health and social distancing information is being shared via mobile phone apps like WhatsApp. Kenya has yet to record any cases in the two camps, which houses 217,000 people in eastern Kenya in Dadaab along the Somali border, and 190,000 in northwestern Kenya along the South Sudanese border, respectively. The majority of refugees hail from Somalia, South Sudan and Ethiopia. Health experts and humanitarians warn a COVID-19 outbreak in either camp would be catastrophic, where Dadaab has a quarantine capacity for only 2,000 people and one dedicated COVID-19 health facility with 110 beds. (Al Jazeera)

Bonus

The below footage was sent to us from Ethiopian refugee and Kakuma refugee camp resident Korsamo who wanted to show us life in the camp today after the lockdown and new restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Korsamo came to Kakuma several years ago to seek refuge from persecution, where he met his wife and had three children together. He usually supplements his food rations with a meager income earned as a moto driver but now under the new restrictions, the usual hustle and bustle in the camp, (which we have witnessed first hand while living and working there) has come to a standstill, and with it, his income. For more on life in Kakuma, check out the film Invisible City, shot on location in the camp by filmmaker Lieven Corthouts known to us during our time in Kakuma. 

Life in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya during Covid-19 lockdwon

Flooding Displaces Thousands in Kenya

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Flooding Sweeps Kenya, Displacing Thousands

Abnormally heavy rains across East Africa and the run-off from storms in the Ethiopian highlands that caused flash flooding in neighboring Somalia as well, has now left thousands homeless and without their farms in western Kenya after the River Nzoia broke its bank on Saturday. These are secondary displacements for some who were made homeless earlier by conflict and climate shocks. According to the UN’s Emergency Aid Coordination Office (OCHA), the rising river levels are already at unprecedented levels usually seen at the end of May. Rains across west, central and southeast Kenya have lasted over a week, triggering river overflows, mudslides and floods. Already, 116 people have died across 29 of Kenya’s 47 counties. Damaged roads and bridges have made access to shelter and health facilities a huge challenge, now made worse by fears of coronavirus spread due to overcrowding. The Kenya Red Cross has asked for additional shelters and suggested an integrated approach to COVID-19 prevention and flood response. (The New Humanitarian) 

Facing Eroding Protections, Hundreds of Rohingya Flee Camp to no Avail

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Hundreds of Rohingya Stranded on Refugee Boats in Bay of Bengal

Around 390 refugee survivors were rescued on April 16 from a trafficking boat intended for Malaysia, while attempting to flee desperate conditions in the world’s largest refugee complex Cox’s Bazar. The boat is among many others still at sea, which had previously reached Malaysia but was denied permission to disembark with authorities citing the coronavirus lockdown. The refugees were forced back to sea where 70 people were reported to have died, and ultimately to Cox’s Bazar where they were quarantined for two weeks and received medical treatment due to the abysmal conditions on board. Three other boats remain at sea with about 700 Rohingya refugees onboard in similar terrible conditions, which the UN warns could present a “human tragedy of terrible proportions” if no actions are taken. Presumably, refugees are leaving Cox’s Bazar as rumors circulate of coronavirus spread and as Bangladesh moves to fence the camp and restrict communications. (Telegraph UK)

Analysis

The tragedy unfolding in the Bay of Bengal and Cox’s Bazar impacting hundreds of Rohingya who have already fled ethnic cleansing in Myanmar is emblematic of the further erosion of humanitarian protections imposed by new COVID-19 restrictions. If Bangladesh had refused return of the boat and Malaysia had forced those refugees back to their countries where they were reasonably expected to face persecution, torture or other cruel and degrading treatment, it would have been tantamount to refoulement. The principle of non-refoulement always applies under international law and under no circumstances is it ever permissible to forcibly return an asylum seeker. Furthermore, for the refugees in Cox’s Bazar, the right to health, a fundamental human right enshrined in human rights, humanitarian and refugee law, is impeded because refugees are being denied access to life-saving health information by the Bangladeshi government’s decision to restrict Internet communications access, including their freedom of movement, via recent policies to fence the refugee complex in an effort to contain the novel coronavirus.  

In the Indian Sundarbans, the Sea is Coming

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In the Indian Sundarbans, the Sea Is Coming 

Sagar Island in the Bay of Bengal, population of more than 200,000 and growing, is considered by climate scientists to be a climate change “hotspot” and a glimpse into India’s climate future. More than 20 percent of India’s populations live within 31 miles of the coastline, which is considered the world’s most vulnerable to climate change, where sea-level rise is projected to increase between 1.3-2 feet and temperature increases of 2.6 to 4.8 degrees are expected by 2100. Latest research indicates that this sea level rise could affect three times as many people than previously expected, which could erase Asian megacities like Bangkok and Mumbai. Sagar is already resource depleted and communities are vulnerable with increased demands in a dense state, and expectations are that climate migration will become a necessity, as seen in neighboring Bangladesh, where coastal climate change has driven conflict and mass migration among shrimp farmers to cities. India has already seen some of the highest levels of disaster displacement and latest rankings from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre ranks India at the top for highest new disaster displacements in the first half of 2019. Over the past 25 years, four islands in the Sundarbans have already disappeared with Lohachara, the world’s first inhabited island to disappear, creating India’s first “climate refugees.” (The Diplomat)

Refugee Leadership During COVID-19 and Beyond

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Refugee Leadership During COVID-19 and Beyond

The Global Refugee-Led Network, in a call with more than 100 refugee leaders around the world, discovered that refugees have been excluded from health responses in pandemic-affected areas, previously self-reliant refugees have been forced into destitution and others remain highly vulnerable to exposure in crowded camps. Refugees also remain highly anxious due to a lack of information and capacity to respond. In this context, refugees have mobilized to step up and fill voids, providing information and training, food distribution, legal support, mental health and other critical gaps all over the world in East Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and beyond. As UN agencies and NGOs continue to be constrained by restrictions, it is refugees who are serving as the first responders to their own communities. Experts are calling for donor regulations and multilateral agencies to pursue refugee-led responses during this pandemic and beyond. (UNSW)

Climate Change is Turning Europeans Into Migrants

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Extreme Weather Exiles: How Climate Change is Turning Europeans into Migrants

According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, disaster displacement knows no economic boundaries. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Spain, France and Germany have had the highest number of climate displacements on the continent and Moldova is the most climate-vulnerable country in Europe. Climate displacements have doubled in the last four years from 43 in 2016 to 100 in 2019, and already, Europe has recorded four storms through February 2020. Over the past decade there have been 700,000 classified disasters. One expert contends that one disaster displacement may not equate to population displacement, but repeat disasters can push people to relocate permanently. He adds that most displaced don’t seem to realize they are, in fact, climate migrants, and the lack of clear terminology or official designations, adds to the confusion. This is also in keeping with UN findings where migrants tend to underestimate the extent of climate change in their lives, rather, linking their plights to poverty and overlook the root causes behind the disaster.  

One town in France, La Faute-sur-Mer, sued the town’s mayor following 2010’s Storm Xynthia, but the lawyer and former environment minister says the challenge is proving climate change as the sole causality and points to the case as a strong example of the need for stronger legislation to protect citizens from climate-related disasters. In Europe, climate migration can feel voluntary, but is it? The IOM states environmental migration is sometimes forced, sometimes voluntary, but most likely, somewhere in between. 

“When you are forced to do something because it's the right thing to do, it’s not the same as making a decision because you want to.”

Anne Birault 

Displaced resident (La Faute-sur-Mer, France)


In this regard, Europe lags behind Africa, where the African Union has adopted the Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons or what is commonly known as the ‘Kampala Convention,’ which acknowledges climate change as man-made with the potential to generate disaster displacements. Europe, on the other hand, still tracks the links between migration, climate change and environmental degradation only in terms of receiving migrants, and not the displacements it generates internally. 

This clearly is more than a problem of under-reporting. It also leads to a lack of data, lack of understanding and a lack of analysis of the needs, gaps and response plans vital to safeguard rights and security. (EuroNews)