Kenya court refuses to close largest refugee camp News
Kenya court refuses to close largest refugee camp

The High Court of Kenya ruled [judgment, PDF] Thursday that a government order to close the world’s largest refugee camp is unconstitutional. Dadaab, a camp to more than 200,000 people, would have been forced to shut down and send its inhabitants back to war-torn Somalia [BBC backgrounder]. The judge who halted the order said the government failed [Al Jazeera report] to prove Somalia was safe. Also important to the decision was the lack of consultation between the government and the affected refugees.

The refugee crisis has been a major concern in recent years. Earlier this week the US Department of Justice released a memorandum approving [JURIST report] of President Donald Trump’s executive order to restrict immigration refugee entry into the US. In January the government of Turkey threatened to scrap an agreement with Greece on refugees if eight soldiers from Turkey are not retried [JURIST report] in Greece. That same month the UN reported that 2016 had more recorded migrant deaths [JURIST report] than any previous year.