NAIROBI — Somali asylum seekers fleeing their war-torn country are routinely raped, beaten, detained and blackmailed by Kenyan police when crossing the border, said a report published Thursday.
In its 99-page report entitled "Welcome to Kenya: Police Abuse of Somali Refugees", Human Rights Watch urged Kenya to rein in its police and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to step up its monitoring of the situation.
"People fleeing the mayhem in Somalia, the vast majority women and children, are welcomed to Kenya with rape, whippings, beatings, detention, extortion, and summary deportation," said Gerry Simpson, the report's main author.
An estimated 40,000 Somalis crossed the long porous border with Kenya in the first four months of 2010 alone in a bid to reach one of the camps in Dadaab, the world's largest refugee settlement, with a population close to 300,000.
"Once in the camps, some refugees face more police violence and the police turn a blind eye to sexual violence by other refugees and local Kenyans," Simpson added.
