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KENYA: Operations in Dadaab camp to continue, UNHCR says

NAIROBI, 10 July (IRIN) - The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has said it will continue to administer refugees in Dadaab camp, northeastern Kenya, despite threats by local politicians who this week accused the agency of ignoring the welfare of local communities around camp.

The politicians have issued UNHCR with a week's ultimatum to relocate elsewhere.

UNCHR spokesman Emmanuel Nyabera told IRIN on Wednesday the refugee agency was continuing with its operations in Dadaab as usual, as it had neither received an official complaint from the MPs, nor instructions from the government.

"We heard about this in the media," Nyabera said. "We never received any official communications. Any concerns should be channelled through the ministry of home affairs, which is our partner in handling refugees."

"So far, the government has been honouring its obligations to respect refugee rights," he added.

An official from the home affairs ministry told IRIN on Wednesday the government could not comment on the issue, as it had yet to receive an official complaint from the MPs.

On Monday, two members of parliament from Kenya's Northeastern Province gave UNHCR a week to move refugees out of Dadaab. They claimed the presence of an estimated 120,000 refugees in the area was degrading the environment at the expense of the host community.

"We are giving them [UNHCR and refugees] seven days to pack up and go," the MPs, Muhammad Shidiye and Barre Shill, told journalists in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

However, contrary to the claims made by the MPs, UNHCR has initiated a number of environmentally friendly projects in and around the refugee settlements, providing the local population with access to basic healthcare and social services which they did not have before, Nyabera told IRIN.

"This is really unfortunate," he stressed. "Their [the MPs] complaints are not justified. I don't think they are sincere."

[ENDS]

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