Kenya moves to shut down Dadaab, the world's biggest refugee camp

2016-05-11T18:25:00-04:00

Kenya has vowed to close the world’s biggest refugee camp within a year and send hundreds of thousands of Somalis back to their war-torn homeland or on to other countries, a plan decried by aid and human rights groups as dangerous, illegal and impractical. Kenya says it needs to close the sprawling Dadaab camp, home to 330,000 mostly Somali refugees, to protect the country’s security after a string of terror attacks by al-Shabaab.

With most of Europe and the Middle East grappling with an unprecedented refugee crisis, it's easy to lose sight of the millions of other displaced peoples around the world. But the largest population of refugees isn't in Germany, Sweden, or France.

Rather, with a population of 329,811 refugees, primarily Somali, the refugee camp complex in Dadaab, Kenya is the largest in the world. Now, the Kenyan government is moving to shut it down.

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Kenya's Newest City built only for refugees

2011-09-15T19:42:24-04:00

Dadaab is now the third-largest city in Kenya, but there are no Kenyans living there. Instead, it is home to 450,000 Somalis in a camp that was built for 90,000 people. Refugees like Nuriya are not permitted to leave the camp, because the Kenyan government wants them to remain refugees and not become illegal immigrants. The government also prohibits them from working.

Dialika Krahe reports from the Ifo Refugee Camp, near Dadaab, Kenya. The camp was originally built for 90,000 people but now has around 450,000. Henok Ochalla, the UN camp manager doesn't see how many of the refugees in Dadaab can ever return. Therefore he'd like to establish a permanent part of the camp called "Ifo Extension." This new permanent "city" would include houses instead of tents, health facilities, schools and mosques.

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Kenya moves to shut down Dadaab, the world's biggest refugee camp

Kenya's Newest City built only for refugees