Tag Archives: Kenya
Telling Refugees’ Stories: The Voices Hidden Behind the Panic
How do refugees and other forced migrants impact their host communities? Do they take local jobs? Are they reliant on aid? How do r efugees around the world maintain livelihoods in the face of insecurity, instability and precarity? The Refugee Economics project is a multi-site reporting project headed by Montreal-based journalist Flavie Halais that seeks to answer […]
Kenyan camps are not a long-term solution
In theory, refugee camps are temporary spaces created in response to emergencies, where displaced people live before they are either repatriated of their own will in a post-conflict setting, or are settled safely in a legal agreement made with a third country. In reality, Kenya’s two major refugee camp settlements, Dadaab and Kakuma, reflect protracted […]
Kenya should follow Uganda’s refugee labour example
The current refugee population in Kenya is estimated at 600,000, yet refugees in Kenya at present do not have the legal right to work without paying exorbitant fees to access short-term work permits. According to Article 6 of the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugees must be exempt from any requirements to obtain work permits if they […]
Who benefits? Terrorism in Kenya and the scapegoating of Somali refugees
One year ago in Nairobi, Wole Soyinka gave a stirring lecture in memory of his fellow poet, Kofi Awoonor of Ghana, who was killed in the 2013 Westgate attack. Awoonor was one of at least 67 people killed when al-Shabaab fighters stormed into the Westgate Mall and occupied the building for four days; another 175 […]
“We don’t see the emotional needs”: Caring for Young Children in Refugee Camps
The world’s refugee crisis is not getting any smaller. In 2013, there were 10.4 million people around the world with the designation “of concern to the UNHCR” – a group of people usually known as refugees, in addition 4.8 million people in the Middle East were cared for by the UNRWA. As always these numbers […]
The Migrationist 