Nov 24, 2018(Nyamilepepdia) —- Kenyan police officers on Wednesday arrested a group of South Sudanese refugees who were travelling from Kakuma Refugee Camp on their way to South Sudan and later released them on cash bail totaling 180,000 Kenyan shillings.
The exact reason behind the arrest of 18 South Sudan’s refugees by the Kenyan authorities, is not yet clear. But one of the detained youths attributed their arrest to absence of travel documents. He told Nyamilepedia that they were accused of leaving the designated Camps without having a movement pass that’s issued to refugees whenever they leave the camp.
“We were stopped at the border by the Kenyan police, and asked each and everyone of us to show a valid document issued by the office of the Refugees Affairs Secretariat-RAS.
But none of us was found carrying those documents, because the fact of the matter was that, our country is now at peace, and this is what we have been waiting for, why should we [refugees] wait for someone to come and give us a travel document when we feel the situation will be safe for us?, Can that document guarantee our safety?” he questioned.
Hundreds of refugee families living in different Camps are expressing interest to go home and rebuild their lives devastated by nearly five consecutive years of civil war and political instability between the South Sudanese warring parties.
Several households interviewed by Nyamilepedia in Kakuma and Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement Camp have been expressing a yearning desire to return home and live a better life when peace is fully achieved.
Kenya, which is one among the signatories to a number of international treaties applicable to individuals seeking asylum, currently hosts thousands of refugees from South Sudan, who have escaped from violence since 2013.
