Group calls for end to Kenyan abuses

NAIROBI, Kenya, March 30 (UPI) -- Thousands of Somali refugees in Kenya are being abused by a violent and corrupt police force in the world's largest refugee settlement, a rights group said.

Human Rights Watch said Monday in a 58-page report that the Kenyan government should immediately crack down on police misconduct and provide more land for refugees.

"People escaping violence in Somalia need protection and help, but instead face more danger, abuse, and deprivation," said Gerry Simpson, refugee researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. "Somali asylum seekers should be able to cross the border safely and get the aid in Kenya they urgently need."

Human Rights Watch said that in 2008, nearly 60,000 Somalis sought refuge in three camps in northeastern Kenya only to face violence and extortion by police.

Kenya officially closed its border with Somalia in January 2007, after Ethiopian troops intervened in support of Somalia's weak transitional government.

"Kenya has legitimate security concerns and a right to control its borders, but its borders can't be closed to refugees fleeing fighting and persecution," Simpson said. "The border closure has only made Somali refugees more vulnerable to abuse and lessened the government's and the (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) control over who enters Kenya and who is registered in the camps."