The biggest refugee camps in Kenya are Dadaab, Kakuma, Hagadera, Dagahaley, and Ifo. The Dabaab camp hosts about 250,000 refugees and is the most popular of the five largest camps. The Hagadera camp is part of the Dabaab camp and hosts about 105,998 refugees primarily from Somalia. The Dagahaley camp is also a part of the Dadaab camp and hosts nearly 87,223 refugees who fled from the Somali Civil War in the 1990's. The Ifo camp is the oldest of the Dadaab camp complex and hosts about 84,089 refugees, also mainly from Somalia. The Kakuma camp, established in 1992 hosts about 184,550 and is in Northwestern Kenya. The reason for these refugee camps are drought, famine, violence, and civil war in Somalia, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. These camps are overcrowded, massively congested, little opportunity for employment, and are often dealing with high cases of malnutrition and disease. All leading to a constant threat from the Kenya government to shut them down again displacing hundreds of thousands of refugees. It is important to note that a high number of Somalia refugees are resettled to the United States, Canada, and Australia, as well as, Norway, Sweden, and the UK, in Europe.
This is very informative. Thank you for all of those stats. What do you feel would be the repercussions if Kenya were to close the refugee camps? How would that impact other countries who have agreed to take Somalian refugees? I wish that something further could be done within Somalia to prevent the need for the refugee camps, and to avoid future conflicts.
Kristen Morris
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