UNHCR High Commissioner António Guterres speaks to IDPs at Naivasha Stadium

The High Commissioner for United Nations High Commission for Refugees Mr. António Guterres has decried the deplorable state in which the internally displaced Kenyans are living.

Speaking in Naivasha Stadium in the Rift Valley, home to about 4,000 people displaced in post-election violence earlier this year on the eve World Refugee Day, the Higher Commissioner said conflicts are spurred by politics “but can also be brought about by poverty, bad governance and climate change leading to competition for resources.”

Mr. Guterres who had just concluded a mission to Dadaab camp- one of the world's largest refugee camps- met with the group of internally displaced Kenyans who were uprooted in post-election violence earlier this year to deliver his message that his “ hope is for all of them to be able to go home soon.”

He told both groups – Somali refugees in the sprawling Dadaab camp on the Kenya-Somalia border and displaced Kenyans in the town of Naivasha –"I have been in a lot of camps over the past three years all over the world and I know that to live in a camp is not something any of us would wish for ourselves or our families or friends.

A camp, he said, should only be a short-term solution, adding that the role of UNHCR is to try and make it as dignified as possible for those who must spend time there. “Our biggest wish is that you will soon be able to go home in safety and dignity," said Mr. Guterres.

Government officials at Naivasha said more than 195,000 of them had already returned home, while about 43,000 remained in camps around the country. There are two camps in Naivasha holding a total of 4,411 internally displaced people, down from some 11,000 earlier this year.

While UNHCR has a mandate for refugees who have crossed international borders fleeing persecution and violence, internally displaced people (IDP) who remain within their own countries are first and foremost a government responsibility said the High Commissioner. UNHCR's work with IDPs in Kenya is in support of the Kenyan Red Cross and the government, who take the lead role.

"My visit here today is an expression of solidarity with the government and the people of Kenya in this difficult moment from which you are now emerging," the High Commissioner said. "For a long time, the Kenyan government has been extremely generous to refugees from all around the region. They always found shelter and protection in Kenya. So now is the time for the international community to express solidarity with the Kenyan people and government."

UNHCR has provided tents and other aid supplies to the Kenyan relief effort and has also trained local aid workers in the management of displacement camps.

The High Commissioner's three-day mission to Kenya was part of weeklong activities that began on Tuesday in London to mark World Refugee Day on June 20. Guterres spent Wednesday and part of Thursday morning at Dadaab, a complex of camps holding some 200,000 refugees from neighbouring Somalia.

On Friday, June 20, Mr. Guterres when marking the World Refugee Day activities in Nairobi said the world was different and refugee protection was vastly more challenging adding that old barriers to human mobility have fallen and new patterns of movement emerged. This he said included forms of forced displacement that were not envisaged by the '51 UN Refugee Convention.

He noted that extreme price increases have generated instability and conflict in many places, with the very real potential of triggering more displacement.

“These new challenges make it all the more important that we find ways to address the increasingly complex root causes of displacement. And the best solution is prevention. We need to better understand what triggers displacement, why states are unable or unwilling to provide citizens with physical, material or legal security,” the High Commissioner observed.

The UN refugee agency, he said focuses on protecting the rights and well-being of refugees. “This includes ensuring that those fleeing violence and persecution are given access to safety and life-saving assistance, as well as long term support during exile and eventual durable solutions for them to be able to rebuild their lives.”

He acknowledged that the work of UNHCR was becoming increasingly difficult in many parts of the world citing efforts to control illegal migration leading to failure to make a distinction between those who choose to move and those who are forced to flee because of persecution and violence. This he added leads to circumstances where refugees are turned away at the borders of countries where they had hoped to find safety and asylum.

The UNHCR High Commissioner paid tribute to all of those who have been forcibly uprooted and to the many humanitarians who help them. “Refugees show incredible courage and perseverance in overcoming enormous odds to rebuild their lives,” he said.Ensuring that they get the protection they deserve, he said, is a noble cause.