In limbo: Dependency, insecurity, and identity amongst Somali refugees in Dadaab camps

Refuge

Volumn 22, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 6-14

  Abdi, Awa M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AID DEPENDENCY; IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION; REFUGEE; SOCIAL SECURITY;

AFRICA; EAST AFRICA; KENYA; SOMALIA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA;

EID: 33748046809     PISSN: 02295113     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (53)

1. This paper draws from two periods of field research in Dadaab in 2001 and 2003: the first included twenty in-depth interviews with women refugees, focus groups with refugee community workers of both sexes, and consultations with NGO staff; the second, conducted with Dr. Howard Adelman, involved extensive community consultations with both refugee groups (youth, women, men, elderly, and religious leaders), and NGO personnel working with refugee serving agencies both in Dadaab and in Nairobi.
2. About 97 per cent of refugees in Dadaab are Somali. However, there are some claims that up to 20 per cent of these are actually Kenyan Somalis who settled within the Somali refugees. The rest comprise a small number of Ethiopians and Sudanese.
3. Abdisalam M. Issa-Salwe, The Collapse of the Somali State: The Impact of the Colonial Legacy (London: Haan Publishing, 1996).
4. MSF pulled out of Dadaab in 2003 and GTZ (German Technical Cooperation) is currently running the health services of these camps.
5. Camps in this paper refer to UN-supervised regimented centres, where refugees are mainly dependent on international aid, and where little prospects for self-sufficiency exist.
6. See Jeff Crisp, "No Solution in Sight: The Problem of Protracted Refugee Situations in Africa" (Working Paper No. 75, New Issues in Refugee Research, Evaluation and Policy Unit, UNHCR, 2003).
7. Wim Van Damme, "Do Refugees Belong to Camps? Experiences from Goma and Guinea," Lancet 346 (1995): 362.
8. UNHCR 1982:57, cited in Sydney Waldron and Naima A. Hasci, "Somali Refugees in the Horn of Africa: State of the Art Literature Review," Studies on Emergencies and Disaster Relief No. 3 (Sweden: Nordiska Africkainstitutet, 1995),19.
9. See Crisp; Johnathan Bascom, "The New Nomads: An Overview of Involuntary Migration in Africa," in The Migration Experience in Africa, ed. J. and T. A. Aina (Sweden: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1995), 197-219
10. For detailed discussion of the schisms between refugees and those who manage camps, see Linda Hitchcox, Vietnamese Refugees in Southeast Asian Camps (London: Macmillan, 1990);
11. Jennifer Hyndman, Managing Displacement: Refugees and the Politics of Humanitarianism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000).
12. B.E. Harrell-Bond, "Pitch the Tents," New Republic (1994): 15-19;
13. in Van Damme, "Do Refugees Belong to Camps?" 1995:361;
14. Waldron and Hasci, 19.
15. Gaim Kibreab, "The Myth of Dependency among Camp Refugees in Somalia 1979-1989," Journal of Refugee Studies 6 (1993): 321-49.
16. Gaim Kibreab, Journal of Refugee Studies Ibid., 346-47.
17. L. Clark, "The Refugee Dependence Syndrome: Physician Heal Thyself" Washington, D.C.: Refugee Policy Group, 1985), 1-3, cited in Waldron and Hasci, 19.
18. Waldron and Hasci, 19-20;
19. Hitchcox, 148-76.
20. L. Clark and B. Stein, "Older Refugee Settlements in Africa: A Final Report" (Washington, D.C.: Refugee Policy Group, 1985),
21. cited in Barbara Harrell-Bond, "Camps: Literature Review," Forced Migration Review (August 1998): 22-23.
22. David Busby Edwards, "Marginality and Migration: Cultural Dimension of the Afghan Refugee Problem," in "Refugee Issues and Directions," special issue, International Migration Review 20, no. 2 (1986): 325.
23. Hitchcox, 113.
24. IRIN, "Alarming Increase in Refugee Malnutrition," NAIROBI, 27 June (2001), online: IRIN Homepage 〈http://www.irinnews.org〉 (date accessed: 13 January 2002).
25. These prices were those of summer 2001.
26. Clark 1985.
27. This word literally means "refugee." Prior to the 1991 Somali crisis, 'qoxooti' was a word intrinsically associated with Somali-Ethiopian refugees who fled to Somalia in the 1970s and 1980s. In common Somali parlance, it carries multiple negative connotations. Refugees in Dadaab often referred to this past, regretfully claiming that they never thought they would find themselves in such a position, and in retrospect sympathizing with Somali Ethiopians who sought refuge in Somalia.
28. All refugee names in this paper are pseudonyms.
29. B.E. Harrell-Bond, Imposing Aid: Emergency Assistance to Refugees (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986).
30. Gaim Kibreab, "Erithrean and Ethiopian Refugees in Khartoum: What the Eye Refuses to See," African Studies Review 39, no. 3 (1996): 131-78.
31. Beth Elise Whitaker, "Refugees in Western Tanzania: The Distribution of Burdens and Benefits among Local Hosts," Journal of Refugee Studies 15, no. 4 (2002): 342;
32. Jeff Crisp, "A State of Insecurity: The Political Economy of Violence in Kenya's Refugee Camps," African Affairs 99 (2000): 601-32.
33. UNHCR, "Security Analysis Paper" (Sub-Office, Dadaab 2003a).
34. See Africa Watch and Women's Rights Project, "Seeking Refuge, Finding Terror: The Widespread Rape of Somali Women Refugees in North Eastern Kenya," Africa Watch (Human Rights Watch) 4, no. 14 (1993);
35. Human Rights Watch 1997, "International Failures to Protect Refugees: Protection of the Rights of Refugee Women," online: HRW Homepage 〈http://www.hrw.ort/reports/1997/gen3/general.htm (date accessed: 7 January 2002).
36. "Somalia: 2002 Country Report on Human Rights Practices," (U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, 31 March 2003), 6.
37. This word means "locals." Refugees in Dadaab often use it to refer to the Somali local population inhabiting the Dadaab region.
38. This is a term originating from the Kenyan government's conflict with the NFD independence movements in the 1960s. It is now widely used by Somali refugees and humanitarian organizations to refer to lawless bandits who allegedly terrorize refugees and local populations.
39. A recent phenomenon with Somali women is the addition of pants, often worn under long dresses, to women's attire. This is a phenomenon that commenced with the civil war, as rapes against women increased. Also with flight and the chaos of daily live in war zones, the pants increased both modesty and the number of layers an attacker needs to remove in an attack, with the hope that help might arrive before the attacker rapes the woman.
40. Guglielmo Verdirame, "Human Rights and Refugees: The Case of Kenya," Journal of Refugee Studies 12, no. 1 (1999):75.
41. "Somalia: 2002 Country Report on Human Rights Practices," 5.
42. Opondo 1994, cited in Waldron and Hasci, 13.
43. Kibreab, 1996, 131-78;
44. Waldron and Hasci, 13.
45. Howard Adelman and Awa M. Abdi, "How Long Is Too Long: Durable Solutions for Dadaab Refugees," (Report for CARE Canada, 2003), 97.
46. UNHCR,"Refugees by Numbers," 2003b, online: UNHCR Homepage 〈http://www.unhcr.org/〉 (date accessed: 24 October 2003).
47. UNHCR, "UNHCR 2002 Annual Report: Somalia, 2003c," 23 July, online: 〈http://www.unhcr.org/〉 (date accessed: 17 January 2004). This report does not state whether these are resettlements under family reunification or on humanitarian grounds. Also it is not clear where these refugees resided prior to resettlement.
48. It is important to highlight that resettlement of about 10,000 Somali-Bantu refugees to the United States has started. These have already been moved from Dadaab camps to Kakuma in the Northwestern region of Kenya. However, the events of September 11,2001, still negatively impact on this group given the stringent security measures enacted in the U.S. for all migration proceedings which will prolong the time it will take to resettle 10,000 people.
49. UNHCR 2003c.
50. Adelman and Abdi, 106-16.
51. Ibid., 15.
52. Judith Kumin, "The Misery of Refugees," UNHCR Canada Representative Address to the G78, Ottawa, April 29, 2003; online: 〈http://www.hri.ca/partners/G78/English/Global/refugees.shtml〉 (date accessed: 1 February 2004).
53. B.E. Harrell-Bond, 1986, 162.