NAIROBI, KENYA – Today, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency assisted 76 Ethiopian refugees currently living in Kenya to return home – marking the first-ever voluntary repatriation programme for a large group of Ethiopian refugees in Kenya. Currently, there are a total of 28,560 Ethiopian refugees in Kenya. “This is a […]
NAIROBI, KENYA – Today, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency assisted 76 Ethiopian refugees currently living in Kenya to return home – marking the first-ever voluntary repatriation programme for a large group of Ethiopian refugees in Kenya. Currently, there are a total of 28,560 Ethiopian refugees in Kenya.
“This is a historical day for Ethiopian refugees in Kenya,” said UNHCR Representative in Kenya, Fathiaa Abdalla, noting that voluntary repatriation, where possible, is the best durable solution for refugees.
The first group of refugees was flown from Kakuma to the eastern Ethiopian city of Dire Dawa in two UNHCR-chartered flights, from where they will then travel onwards by road to Jijiga, capital of the Ethiopia’s Somali Region.
In total, more than 4,000 refugees from Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps are expected to be assisted to return home in the coming months. The majority of refugees had been living in Kenya for over decades and has opted to return home due to the improved security situation in Ethiopia. Ethiopian refugees in Kenya have been expressing interest in returning home in the hope that peace and stability will continue to hold in their places of origin.
“This is one of the key factors behind UNHCR’s position that repatriation must remain voluntary and gradual in order to ensure that it is durable. UNHCR, we are also very grateful to the people and the Government of Kenya who have been generously hosting about half a million refugees,” Abdalla emphasized.
UNHCR is supporting returnees with a reintegration package in the form of cash assistance which also includes transportation allowances to ensure they can travel to their places of origin.
The voluntary repatriation follows a series of positive steps to find solutions to one of the protracted refugee situations in Africa. Kenya currently hosts nearly 500,000 refugees, mostly from Somalia and South Sudan but also from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Burundi.
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