Tuesday 1 October 2002

Press Briefing Notes
Tuesday 1 October 2002
Spokesperson: Jean Philippe Chauzy

KENYA -Relocation of Somali Bantus from Dadaab to Kakuma Ends.
COTE D'IVOIRE - Number of IDPS at Abidjan Transit Centre Increases.
SENEGAL- Workshop on International Migration in West Africa.

KENYA -Relocation of Somali Bantus from Dadaab to Kakuma ends -The relocation of Somali Bantu from Dadaab refugee camp near the Somali border, to Kakuma refugee camp in north-western Kenya has ended. The last convoy transporting 302 Somali Bantus arrived on Sunday in Kakuma to be met by a cheering crowd. Over a three-month period, IOM organised 23 road convoys to assist a total of 11,755 refugees on a three day, 1,500-km journey across Kenya.

Four hundred and ninety-nine particularly vulnerable refugees -- pregnant women, infants, elderly and those too sick to travel by road -- were flown on a chartered IOM aircraft, which completed 10 rotations between Dadaab and Kakuma.

IOM started the relocation of Somali Bantus on 27 June. According to Sasha Chanoff of IOM Kenya, the refugees will now have to start to adapt to their new future. "Now that the relocation is finished, IOM will begin medical examinations in October and organise cultural orientation courses soon thereafter. Topics will include US law, employment, cultural adjustment, as well as additional classroom time for parenting issues, youth topics and survival literacy," he says.

In Kakuma, IOM and the NGO World Vision have built 2,500 mud brick shelters. 200 hundred additional shelters are being constructed for the final arrivals, who will spend the first few nights in UNHCR-issued tents.

Approximately 500 Somali Bantus referred to the US Refugee Program remain in Dadaab. IOM will move these residual cases once UNHCR conducts interviews and confirms their identities.

The Somali Bantu are living reminders of the once widespread and lucrative Indian Ocean slave trade. Their history as a distinct group began around the turn of the 18th century when the sultan of Zanzibar and other slave lords captured their forefathers in Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique and sold them into slavery in Somalia.

But their origins, as well as distinct ethnic and cultural differences kept them a marginalised minority from ethnic Somalis. Discrimination and poverty prevented access to schooling, land ownership and every day rights.

In 1991, as Somalia descended into chaos and civil war, hostile militias raided Bantu settlements. Isolated, without any clan affiliation or other means of protection, they suffered widespread massacres and rape. Thousands fled on foot to neighbouring Kenya. The most vulnerable, the elderly, the young and the sick died en route of hunger, thirst and disease.

In 1999, the United States designated these exiled Somali Bantu a priority group for resettlement. But because of its proximity to Somalia, and its alleged terrorist links, the Dadaab camps are considered too dangerous for US immigration officials to visit

COTE D'IVOIRE - Number of IDPs at Abidjan Transit Centre Increases - IOM's Deux Plateaux transit camp is currently providing shelter to 163 mostly Liberian, Sierra Leonean, Togolese and Sudanese nationals made homeless by arson attacks which followed the 19 September army uprising.

According to David Coomber, IOM's acting Chief of Mission in Cote d'Ivoire, 23 more Liberian nationals from Agban and Yopougon - both poor neighbourhoods - arrived over the weekend. All feared reprisals from the local population.

According to latest reports, a further 125 African foreign nationals are currently waiting for shelter at the UNHCR compound. The IOM centre, which is designed to house a maximum of 200 people, will only be able to accept some of them. IOM, UN agencies and NGO's are currently in the process of identifying new shelter facilities in Abidjan.

The NGO Caritas is currently delivering food, including rice and sardines, to the Deux Plateaux camp, on a daily basis. A Caritas doctor is also visiting the camp.

The camp is normally used for processing refugees destined for resettlement in the United States. It was set up by IOM in June 2001 when the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) stopped conducting resettlement interviews in Cote D'Ivoire's refugee camps. Since then 4,901 refugees have passed through the facility.

SENEGAL -Workshop on International Migration in West Africa Opens- A five-day workshop to discuss international migration in West Africa opened in Dakar yesterday.

The workshop, jointly organised by the IOM Regional Mission in West Africa and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) brings together 50 migration experts from 14 member States of ECOWAS - Benin, Burkina Faso, Cap Verde, Cap d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. Representatives of the Government of Mauritania are also attending the seminar. .

The workshop coincides with the launch of a Permanent Observatory on International Migration in Senegal, the first step towards a similar project covering all 15 ECOWAS states, plus Mauritania. The Observatory will collect data to better understand and address regional migration issues and will contribute to regional migration dialogue, programmes and policies.

Opening the Dakar workshop, IOM Deputy Director General Ndioro Ndiaye called for the establishment of a consultative Migration Dialogue for Western Africa (MIDWA), based on the model provided by the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA).


In July IOM and ECOWAS signed an agreement to foster a regular exchange of information and to promote technical cooperation in the field of migration.

The workshop follows the Dakar Declaration adopted by governments in October 2000 and the Regional Seminar on Migration in West Africa organised last December in Dakar.

A press conference will take place on Friday 4 October at 14h30 at the Novotel in Dakar. For more information, contact Jean Louis Domergue, IOM Regional Mission in Dakar, Tel. 221 865 19 01. Email: mrfdakar@iom.int