Open Letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Published: 1 Sep 2016
The following letter was submitted to the Rights in Exile newsletter for publication and distribution. It was sent to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees on 15 July 2016.
We write to express our concern about the fate of Somali Bantu refugees currently living in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps. As scholars of and from southern Somalia, we implore the United Nations to prevent the refoulement of any Somali refugee in Kenya fearing persecution in his or her home country. The refugees particularly vulnerable to refoulement are the minority farmers from the Juba and Shabelle River Valleys known as Somali Bantus. Their home regions in southern Somalia have been fought over and controlled by a host of militias, including the Islamic Courts Union and Al Shabaab, since the war commenced in the early 1990s. Prior to the war, Somali Bantus experienced regular violations of their civil and human rights. In recognition of their extreme victimization during the early years of the war by occupying militias, 12,000 Somali Bantus were resettled in the United States under a P-2 or “persecuted minority group” designation after 2004. During the past 25 years, the militias occupying southern Somalia and profiting from the control of ports and roads have continued to exploit Somali Bantus as slave labor.
The degree of persecution increased after Al Shabaab imposed its extremist version of Islam on Somali Bantus. While the exploitation of the farmers as slave labor continues under Al Shabaab, it also murders Somali Bantu men and boys who refuse to take up arms against AMISOM, extorts money from Somali Bantus who have family in the United States, and amputates, stones to death, and decapitates Somali Bantus who are accused of disparaging Islam. This persecution forced a second wave of Somali Bantus numbering in the tens of thousands to seek refuge in Dadaab and Kakuma. It is also the reason they cannot repatriate to Somalia. Al Shabaab regularly executes Somalis whom it suspects of being western or AMISOM spies or having collaborated with non-Muslim organizations such as western NGOs and the Kenyan government. Somali Bantus do not have the protection of a militarily powerful clan in Somalia and are exploited and murdered with impunity by Al Shabaab, as well as by other militias. We urge UNHCR to find a safe resolution for Somali Bantus and to ensure they are not returned to Somalia against their will.
Sincerely,
Catherine Besteman, Francis F. and Ruth K. Bartlett Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, Colby College
Ali Jimale Ahmed, Professor and Chair, Department of Comparative Literature, Queens College-CUNY
Omar Abdulkadir Eno, Professor, Atlas University and Portland State University, National Somali Bantu Project
Lee V. Cassanelli, Professor of History and former Director, Africa Center, University of Pennsylvania
Ken Menkhaus, Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science, Davidson College
Elizabeth Kimball Kendall and Elisabeth Hodder Professor, History, Wellesley College
Mohamed Eno, Dean and Professor, African Studies, St. Clements University
Laura Hammond, Head and Reader, Department of Development Studies, SOAS
Ahmed Samatar, James Wallace Professor and Chair, International Studies, Macalaster College
Mohamed Mukhtar, Professor and Chair of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Savannah State University
Cindy Horst, Research Professor in Migration and Refugee Studies, Peace Research Institute Oslo
Abdi M. Kusow, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Iowa State University
Francesca Declich, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Sciences, Humanistic and International Studies and Director, Ethnological Mission in Mozambique and Malawi
Claire Thomas, Deputy Director, Minority Rights Group
Daniel J. Van Lehman, National Somali Bantu Project, Portland State University
Mohamed Haji Ingiriis, PhD Candidate, King’s College, University of Oxford
Stephanie Bjork, Residential Anthropology Faculty, Paradise Valley Community College
Sheiknur Kassim, activist
Abdulahi Osman, PhD, Independent Researcher
Anna Rader, PhD, Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS
Giulia Liberatore, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), University of Oxford