Dozens of Somali refugees in Kenya who were hours from travelling to the United States to start new lives under a longstanding resettlement programme now face repatriation, after Donald Trump’s executive order banned migrants from seven Muslim-majority countries for three months.
About 100 refugees who had expected to travel to the US before the end of the week are currently staying in a transit camp in Nairobi.
They are among approximately 3,000 refugees scheduled to be resettled in the US from camps in northern Kenya, the majority from Dadaab, a sprawling tent citywhere an estimated 300,000 Somalis live.
There are now fears that even those cleared for a new life in the US may face a return to Somalia, a war-torn country where Islamist militants have launched attacks on a multinational military force trying to bring stability and international agencies have warned of famine.
Kenyan authorities have pledged to shut the Dadaab camp and send its inhabitants back to Somalia as soon as May, only weeks after the temporary ban imposed by Trump’s executive order expires. Read full details here.