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Somaliland's Government Repeats the Same Mistake
By Abdirahman Ahmed Shunuf
Voluntary repatriation is an area of growing interest to major donors and the UNHCR, as the stated “best solution” to the growing refugee population worldwide. Higher profile programmes such as UN sponsored returnees to Namibia and Bosnia serve to emphasize the apparent viability of this new policy direction in international refugee management. However, there is mounting evidence that donor managed repatriations, coordinated as they are by governments and associations of governments, are not always in concert with, nor reflective of, the desires of refugees themselves. At the same time, there are some circumstances that fall entirely outside the criteria for major donor involvement in repatriation.
There are three formal requirements for sponsoring repatriation articulated by the UNHCR executive committee. They are: that the return should be truly voluntary in nature; the refugees be allowed to return to their place of origin and ideally their original homes; and that there must be clear and unequivocal agreement between the government of the host country and the government of the country of origin, both on the modalities of the movement and the conditions of reception (UNHCR 1985f). Somaliland's repatriation is an excellent example of the failure of the international community and the Somaliland government to address the three formal requirements for sponsoring repatriation.
The first failure:
Given that many refugee generating situations arise from “internal wars” between governments and organized insurgent movements, for example, (Somali National Movement’s war for national liberation which led to the victory of the movement and the rebirth of Somaliland) and given the fact that Somaliland is not yet recognized by the international community, the strict government –to- government context which these criteria stipulate does not adequately account for all repatriation. Therefore, governments and other multilateral institutions lack the legal bases to act independently, unless Somaliland is recognized or given an observer status. (See for example, the recent ICG report 28 July 2003).
The recent agreement between Somaliland and Britain to repatriate Somaliland refugees is, therefore illegal, because the agreement occurred entirely outside donor generated refugee protocols, mentioned above.
The Second Failure: The second formal requirement for sponsoring repatriation is that the return should be truly voluntary in nature.
The new Somaliland foreign minister Mrs. Edna Aden expressed the willingness of Somaliland refugees in Britain to return voluntarily to their homeland, in a major speech to the parliament last week. While the foreign minister was busy trying to win votes for her first major foreign policy bill, one of her strong supporters was non other than the current minister of reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement Mr. Abdillahi Hussein Iman (Dirawal) who was previously the key player in a similar repatriation agreement between the Governments of Somaliland and Denmark in 1998. This agreement was unfortunately a major foreign policy disaster for both nations, because the 7.8 Million-Dollar Denmark repatriation program was known as the forced repatriation program rather than a voluntary repatriation.
What follows is a newspaper account of the events of 1998 forced refugees repatriation from Denmark. “In the middle of last week and this week, five Somaliland refugees were brought to Hargeisa airport. They included three women and two children. The Republican came to know after an interview with two of the women who arrived at Hargeisa airport on the fourteenth April 1998, that Denmark was responsible for what these two women called “A Forced repatriation”. (April 18, 1998 The Republican).
Explaining the in-human conditions that these people suffered, Sahra Mohamed Ali says, “you know, I had a medical report, explaining that I was suffering from a throat problem and that my baby was also not allowed any food that had milk products. The baby was also on medication. I was not allowed to purchase any medicine for my baby and myself. They did not allow me to take my belongings, including clothes, shoes, etc. I had no money either. When I arrived at the airport, Somaliland government officials came to me to meet us, I tried to explain my situation, but to no avail, they in fact laughed at us and thought it was funny. We were thrown to the Airport terminal like dogs with no money and shelter”. The Somaliland government denied any hand in the mishandling of the refugees. The Minister of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Mr. Abdillahi Hussein Iman who incidentally still holds the same post said at that time, “Our agreement with Denmark stipulated that we will be informed on when the deportations will take place, but the Danish government didn’t inform us and therefore had begun deporting refugees without our knowledge”. (April 18, 1998 The Republican).
In Conclusion, “Those Who Don’t Learn From History Are Doomed To Repeat It”!
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