Country Deports 18 Somali Asylum Seekers

Nairobi, November 21, 2007 - Kenya deported 18 Somalis to Mogadishu on Tuesday and was expected to deport 32 more, police and a Muslim group said.

The group, which fled fighting in the lawless Somali capital, has been detained at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for a week after the government denied them asylum.

"Those who have been given boarding passes are 18. They are being bundled into an aircraft by the police and some are resisting on the runway," Al-Amin Kimathi, head of the Muslim Human Rights Forum, told Reuters.

A police officer at the airport, who did not want to be named, said: "They are currently in the aircraft and they will be leaving soon. It went quite smoothly."

Fighting between suspected Islamist-led insurgents and Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian allies has driven tens of thousands of Somalis from their homes.

Mr Kimathi accused the government of violating local laws and international human rights conventions by deporting the group.

"These people are escaping war in Mogadishu, they are being sent to certain death," he said.

Kenya closed its borders with Somalia in January after Ethiopian and Somali troops routed a group of hardline Islamists from Mogadishu after a two-week war. Kenyan Muslims complained the government had ignored the rights of Muslims on the grounds of counter-terrorism.

The government said it was preventing dangerous people and illegal immigrants from entering the country across the porous border, where violence is common.

Late on Monday, three Somali gunmen attacked the Kenyan border town of Mandera, killing one soldier and wounding two others, witnesses said. Four Somali civilians were also killed in the gun battle and seven were wounded they said.

Customs house

"Fighting between the Somali militias and the Kenyan army took place somewhere less than a kilometre away from the Kenyan customs house," Somali elder Bishar Mohamed told Reuters by telephone.

Meanwhile, a Muslim organisation has lodged another complaint against security agents in the country accusing them of harassing Somali refugees.

The National Muslim Human Rights Forum criticised the decision to deny asylum to close to 40 Somali nationals who were running away from the clan fighting that has characterised their over the last few years.

Source: Reuters