Kenyan police have repatriated more than 60 Ethiopia aliens to ease congestion at the local police cells.
The aliens who spent two weeks at the police custody in northern Kenya town of Isiolo due to the lack of logistics had gone on hunger strike after the authorities failed to deport them on time.
Some of them were rushed to Isiolo level four hospital for medication after feeding on food which they were not used to.
Isiolo police commander Daniel Kamanza who flagged off the first batch out of 120 aliens to Ethiopia said late Tuesday the aliens were used to special meals which were not provided in the cell.
Kamanza said the presence of aliens at the cells had congested the rooms and caused serious food rationing because they were not budgeted for.
“It’s a crisis we had not budgeted for the aliens and we could only share out the small food to the larger group to keep them going,” said the local police commander.
The Ethiopian nationals who were held at Isiolo police custody accused the Kenyan government of failing to deport them despite having been paid a fine at an Isiolo court for being in the country illegally.
Some of the aliens had failed to raise the fine and were jailed for three months at Isiolo prison while others had completed their 3-month jail term a week ago before they were put in police cell.
They were transferred to Isiolo police cells awaiting transportation back to Ethiopia but their deportation were delayed since police vehicles were said to be occupied in tracking down criminals.
Sources within the police said the station does not have a functioning truck to repatriate the aliens to Ethiopia. Isiolo County Commissioner Wanyama Musiambo held crisis meetings with the senior government officials to resolve the matter.
Two trucks were flagged off after the county commissioner intervened and directed that the departments intervene in repatriating the aliens. Kamanza faulted the courts orders instructing them to deport the aliens to Ethiopia with no facilitation at all.
Kamanza said the repatriation orders should have been given out to immigration departments so that they can facilitate their deportation.
He said the aliens could not be released out of custody and be allowed to travel back to their country on their own and that the officers must accompany them to the border areas when they will hand over the group.
Kamanza raised concern over the exodus of the Ethiopian aliens using the routes to Nairobi and then South Africa.
He said the number of aliens who find their way into the cells have doubled in the past few days over stretching the capacity of the cells.
There has been mass exodus of Ethiopian aliens into the country claiming who later head to South Africa in search of employment.
The Kenyan authorities have blamed the vastness of the region for the runaway influx of foreigners in to Kenya through Moyale on Kenya-Ethiopia borders. Refugee rights organizations and aid agencies have blamed poverty in Africa for the rising cases of human trafficking.
They said that the huge supply of labor both skilled and unskilled makes them vulnerable to criminal syndicates.
Source: coastweek
February 11, 2014
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