Kenya relocates over 2,700 refugees to camps

The Kenyan government has relocated 2,760 refugees and asylum seekers to the refugee camps in northern Kenya, the UN said Tuesday, adding 360 people others including five refugees were deported to Mogadishu.

The latest report from the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Eastern Africa says the relocation or deportation of refugees and asylum seekers followed the security operation, launched by the police April 2 after the grenade attacks in Nairobi and Mombasa.

"As of June 11, 2,757 refugees and asylum seekers had been relocated to the refugee camps with the majority (2,200 people) transferred to Dadaab refugee camp," Xinhua quoted OCHA as saying in the report, citing statistics from the UNHCR.

The security swoop involved door-to-door searches by security personnel with the objective of combing out undocumented immigrants and persons living in Kenya illegally.

The operation coincided with a government directive, issued March 26, requiring all refugees and asylum-seekers to report to the designated refugee camps in Dadaab and Kakuma.

The East African nation is home to an estimated 50,000 urban refugees.