Group warns of Somali refugee crisis

GENEVA -- Tens of thousands of refugees flooding into northern Kenya to avoid fighting in Somalia have created a “rapidly developing emergency” that needs urgent action by the Kenyan government, the United Nations and aid donor countries, Human Rights Watch warned Thursday.

The escalating conflict between Somali and Ethiopian government forces against local Islamist insurgents has led to an influx of refugees into Kenya, Human Rights Watch said. More than 65,000 Somalis will have fled into Kenya by the end of this year, up from 19,000 in 2007, the New York-based human rights group said.

Kenya closed its border with Somalia in January 2007 but has been unable to stem the flow of refugees brought over by smuggling networks, Gerry Simpson, a Human Rights Watch researcher, said.

Refugees reported being picked up and forced back across the border if they were unable to pay bribes to the police, Mr. Simpson said after an investigation in October. Others were detained in the camps or in nearby towns, subjected to beatings, and sometimes forced back across the border, he said.

The continuing influx of refugees has caused severe overcrowding in the camps, which were built in 1991 for 90,000 people and now house 250,000, Human Rights Watch said. More than 8,000 people arrived in October alone, it said. The United Nations said about 13 percent of the population of the camp suffer from acute malnutrition, it said.