Providing protection for refugees today is vastly more challenging than when UNHCR began work in 1951, UN Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Gueterres said marking World Refugee Day Friday 20 June i Dadaab camp for Somali refugees in Kenya. Refugees flee conflict in their home countries. "Conflict today may be motivated by politics, but looking deeper it can also be about poverty, bad governance or climate change leading to competition for scarce resources" said Gueteres. Of the total number of 11.4 million refugees worldwide Somalis fleeing the conflict in their own country are the fifth largest group.
23/06/2008 ::
Although the number of Somali refugees in eastern Ethiopia is vastly reduced since the 1990s as most refugees from Somaliland has returned, there are still some 27.000 Somali refugees in two camps in the Ethiopian Somali-region. In the biggest camp in Khebribeyah the remaining refugees from southern Somalia cannot repatriate and a ressettlement programme to USA is about to be started. However, new refugees are coming from southern Somalia and a new camp was recently opened in Aw Barre, while a third camp will soon be opened by UNHCR.
The Embassy participated in marking World Refugee Day in Khebribeyah where refugee artist groups performed and messages were conveyed from UNHCR and ARRA-staff as well as Norwegian ambassador Jens-Petter Kjemprud. In his message to the refugees the ambassador said that he would like World Refugee Day to be abandoned; and that all refugees could go home to their country of origin. He however appreciated the good work performed by ARRA and UNHCR and paid a special tribute to the performing artists who through their songs and performance had conveyed clear messages about their situation. Two Norwegians, Caroline Aasheim and Jon Ødegaard are working for UNHCR Field office in nearby Jijiga, responsible for the camps for Somali refugees in Ethiopia.
Pictures
1:Colourful Somali women refugees performing