By Magdalene Mukami

NAIROBI, Kenya

Touring refugee camps in Northern Kenya, a top humanitarian group official has decried the fear and helplessness found there, particularly amid news the camps may well close.

International Rescue Committee (IRC) President and CEO David Miliband toured the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps on Thursday.

“The air was full of fear, helplessness, and hopelessness, especially by people who hear stories of Kenya closing the camps and the situation back home where fighting is still continuing,” Miliband told reporters at the Fairview hotel in the Kenyan capital.

The International Rescue Committee has been working with the East African nation of Kenya to provide healthcare, nutrition, governance and rights to hundreds of thousands of refugees since 1992, a year after the opening of the largest refugee camp in the world, the Dadaab refugee complex.

Miliband said that the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit, set to be held in Istanbul, Turkey on May 23-24, should address issues of adequate refugee funding to avoid a scenario such as the one happening in Kenya.

The Kenyan government had earlier said that due to it hosting over 600,000 refugees on limited donor funds, it has received a poor humanitarian rating with obvious negative consequences to the economy.

Miliband said that the answer to the crisis is not to close the largest refugee camp in the world, which is home to over 300,000 Somali refugees and receives around 400 refugees every day. “There is a need for better aid, long-time not short-time aid,” he explained. “The international community and the Kenyan government should strike a new deal to better address the refugee crisis in Kenya instead of closing down the camps.”

The IRC head thanked Kenya for toning down its announcement which had earlier indicated that they would also close the Kakuma refugee camp which shelters hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese refugees. He noted that currently 5.3 million are in need of humanitarian aid in South Sudan, and called sending the refugees home a potentially huge mistake.

Milliband’s trip to Kenya comes just a day after Human Rights Watch Deputy Director in Africa Leslie Lefkow accused Kenya of scapegoating refugees.

She said that by sending back refugees to Somalia, Kenya seems ready to join the bandwagon of European states failing to uphold their obligations to refugees and asylum-seekers.

Kenya has threatened to close down the Dadaab refugee camp by this November, saying it is the main base where terrorists plan terror attacks in the East African nation.