Long wait for new life - Dadaab backlog delays registration

By Anindita Ramaswamy Aug 4, 2011, 11:04 GMT

Dadaab, Kenya - Well before dawn, women, children and men form neat rows in the sand outside the refugee reception centre at the Ifo camp in Dadaab. Some have just arrived from Somalia, many have been waiting patiently overnight. This is the final and crucial barrier to their start to a new life.

Some of the new arrivals are surprised by the long wait. They thought the greatest hurdles had already been crossed on their often-perilous journey from Somalia to Kenya, with most of them walking from 10 days to two months - often with little or no food, usually only with hope.

They are first categorized according to the size of their families and handed a token, which ensures entry to the centre to be fingerprinted and given a blue wristband with a number.

They are then herded into an adjacent room for a medical examination. Children under 5 years are vaccinated and pregnant women receive ante-natal care. There are random checks for the adults, particularly those complaining of ailments, who are then referred to a nearby hospital, says Abdikani Hassan, a field assistant at UNHCR, the United Nations agency for refugees.

The line for the food rations is next, and since this can take several hours the families are given high-energy biscuits to stave off hunger as they sit in the scorching heat. They gather in quiet circles and the only sounds that can be heard are of children crying, the elderly wheezing and the occasional ringing of mobile phones.

Once this stage is over, the families get food rations for three weeks: Wheat flour, sugar, cooking oil, maize meal, beans, salt and corn soy blend for porridge. They also get utensils, jerry cans for water, blankets, soap, mats and plastic sheets, which are meant to last two years.

They must return for a formal registration with the Kenyan government's department for refugee affairs, which can take up to two weeks.

'There is a backlog because there are too many of them to be processed. On average the three camps (in Dadaab) have been receiving 1,300-1,500 people a day,' says Moulid Dvigsiye of UNHCR. 'In late May and early June there were 3,000 people daily.'

Until registration, the new arrivals seek out family already living in Dadaab or fan out into the wilderness to patch together shelters from plastic, torn clothes, twigs and blankets; and then forage for firewood to cook. Many who can't find any shelter wait in the shadows of trees - often for months.

If they are fortunate enough to get the government registration completed, followed by another data entry by UNHCR - which includes taking their photographs and biometrics - they receive ration cards and are provided with sturdier tents.

Khalil Abrizag, 14, who arrived at Dadaab with his mother and five siblings, says they have been waiting for one-and-a-half months to get registered.

'We come here every day, stand in line, and the guards say the time is over and we have to come back tomorrow,' he says. 'We were not given any food.'

Others complain that their seriously ill children are not getting referred fast enough to hospitals. Osmail Bilou was taking his malnourished seven-month-old son, Haroun Ismail, to a health clinic every day for four months.

'He was sick from Somalia. We have eight other children to take care of,' Bilou says. 'They were refusing to send us to the hospital. Finally, when he was malnourished and could hardly breathe, they referred me to a big hospital. It might be too late,' he says.

With the dry season expected to continue and given the current levels of malnutrition, the UN projects that the situation will deteriorate. All regions of southern Somalia are expected to face famine by August-September, and the exodus will continue.

In July alone, 40,434 Somalis arrived in Dadaab - the highest monthly arrival rate in the camp's 20-year history, UNHCR said.