Britain's 'shameful' failure to respond to UN calls for aid

The UK has been singled out for its "shameful" failure to send aid to the world's worst refugee crisis unfolding on the remote border between Kenya and war-torn Somalia.

A flood of refugees fleeing the relentless conflict in Somalia has crossed into the already poverty-stricken north of Kenya prompting an emergency appeal from the UN for fresh funds to avert a humanitarian catastrophe.

The UK is among a handful of rich nations who have so far ignored the UN call for $92m and have failed to offer any assistance according to the respected NGO Human Rights Watch.

Three camps around the town of Dadaab are now sheltering 260,000 people, the largest concentration of refugees anywhere in the world, in appalling conditions.

Gerry Simpson, a refugee researcher with Human Rights Watch described Britain's failure to answer the appeal or contribute to the existing UN refugee agency budget for Dadaab as "shameful".

"The UK has given nothing which is extremely disappointing considering its close ties to Kenya," Mr Simpson said at the launch of a new report on the refugee crisis, "From Horror to Hopelessness". "It's also questionable considering UK involvement in international policy for Somalia."

Somalia was convulsed in late 2006 by a US-backed Ethiopian invasion aimed at overthrowing an emerging Islamic government since which the refugee population in Dadaab has swollen by more than 50 percent. The UK lent its support to the intervention which has been widely criticised for making a bad situation worse in the Horn of Africa. The subsequent failed occupation has seen the already ravaged country become more unstable and some 330 people are reported to be crossing into Kenya every day.

Massive overcrowding and chronic lack of facilities mean those who are trying to escape the continuing war face dire conditions ranging from food and water shortages, cholera outbreaks, to attacks and extortion at the hands of corrupt Kenyan police, the rights group claimed.

The bulk of the present inadequate funding comes from the US, Japan and the European Commission, while Italy, Germany, Sweden and Norway all contribute to the USD19m annual budget for the existing camps. Those camps need to be supplemented by at least three new facilities, according to the UN's refugee agency UNHCR, and USD92m is being urgently sought from international donors. However, those appeals have so far gone unanswered, with some analysts suggesting that donors are waiting for the crisis to worsen before taking any action.

" At the moment it's like pulling teeth. Donors aren't increasing their funding, it seems they're waiting for a fresh crisis to break out," said Mr Simpson.

That crisis could be a conflict between local Kenyans and the refugees, a fresh outbreak of disease or even a catastrophic fire in the arid and overcrowded camps.

In another recent report the UK charity Oxfam described conditions at Dadaab as "conducive to a public health crisis."

Philippa Crosland-Taylor, head of Oxfam GB in Kenya, said: "Conditions in Dadaab are dire and need immediate attention. People are not getting the aid they are entitled to. Half of the people in the camp do not have access to enough water."

Kenya's decision to close the border with its troubled northern neighbour in 2007 in order to stem the flow of suspected Islamic militants has made the situation even worse, said the rights group.

The Somali refugees are also being preyed upon by a "corrupt and predatory police" who are arbitrarily arresting asylum seekers and forcibly deporting those that can't or won't pay bribes. After conducting extensive interviews in the Dadaab camp the rights group found that women had been raped by police, while others had been shot or beaten while in custody. The Kenyan police strongly rejected the report.

"It is not worth the paper it is written on," police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said. "I challenge you to do one thing: Go to the areas mentioned, with a copy of that report, then you will come to realize that a lot of it is imagined."

Earlier this month they were accused by the UN of running death squads and carrying out hundreds of extra-judicial killings, claims they also rejected.

The lack of even basic funding for the refugee crisis in Dadaab contrasts sharply with the billions of dollars of military and civilian assets that have been mustered to deal with the problem of piracy off the Somalia coast. A huge EU taskforce, including British vessels, has joined the US navy, and ships from Japan and India among others in a costly operation to stop the hijackings in the shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden.

The daily budget for these operations dwarves the amount the UN is appealing for to help the human fallout from the conflict in the same country.

"When there are commercial interests at stake there is always money to solve the problem," said Mr Simpson. "When it's just women and children in camps there is not."