Kenya on Friday launched an appeal to Europe to take in more Somali refugees as East African and Yemeni ministers discussed how to accelerate the voluntary repatriation of about 900,000 Somalis hosted by their countries.
“We need burden-sharing on the refugee crisis,” Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said at the Nairobi meeting, hosted by the East African bloc Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
The UN said that no fewer than 880,000 Somali refugees currently live in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Tanzania as well as Yemen.
According to the UN the largest numbers are in Kenya, which hosts about 320,000; Yemen with 256,000; and Ethiopia with 247,000,.
An estimated 280,000 Somali immigrants meanwhile live in the European Union, Norway and Switzerland, largely due to a steady flow of asylum seekers, according to the Pew Research Centre.
Somalis have fled their country in large numbers since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre plunged the Horn of Africa nation into anarchy.
Governments formed since 2004 have tried to impose their authority, but face a continuing threat from the radical Islamist group al-Shabaab.
Nkaissery said 60,000 Somalis had been repatriated from Kenya in the framework of an agreement sealed in December 2014 with Somalia and the UN refugee agency UNHCR.
About 6,000 Somalis have meanwhile left Kenya for Europe and the United States, the minister added.
The meeting was on Saturday expected to endorse a wider, regional agreement on repatriation and on the better integration of Somalis who remain in the host countries. (dpa/NAN)