Mogadishu — Hundreds of Somalis repatriated from Kenya over the past two months, some of whom had lived there for decades, are finding it difficult to return to a place they no longer consider home and to rely on relatives who are also struggling to get by.
Kenyan authorities have deported 359 Somalis, including at least three registered refugees, since the start of their security crackdown in early April, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said last Friday (May 23rd).
Amina Hassan, a 25-year-old mother of four, was one of 84 people put on a flight to Mogadishu April 9th.
Hassan said she has lived most of her life in Kenya; her mother fled with her from Somalia when she was only 5 years old after her father was killed in Mogadishu by unknown bandits.
Together they lived in Dadaab Refugee Complex until 2006 when she moved to Nairobi to stay with family friends after her mother died, she said. She eventually settled in Nairobi and married there in 2009.
"My husband, my children and I were forcefully brought back to the city of Mogadishu," she told Sabahi, describing what happened when Kenyan security forces came to their apartment building on Jam Street in Eastleigh. "It was late at night when the security forces apprehended us. Police officers banged on our doors yelling for al-Shabaab to come out."
"We were all terrified," Hassan said. "When they asked us for our refugee identification cards, we told them that we had lost them, but they would not accept that [answer]. We [eventually] joined hundreds of Somali people who were taken to Pangani Police Station in Nairobi."
The family was held in Pangani for three days and then transferred to Kasarani Stadium, where they were held for over two weeks, she said.
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