THT: The government of Somaliland is conducting a nationwide refugee verification exercise with the objective of ascertaining the factual figure of the target group/
The exercise on its sixteenth day has so far registered 5331 who are mainly resident in the capital Hargeisa as revealed by the director of the national Refugees and Resettlement Agency Abdikarim Ahmed
“The objective of this exercise is not to registered new refugees but to update our records through verification of those already registered” said the national refugee agency boss adding that this was necessitated by need o establish whether any of those initially registreded have left the country, died or otherwise.
The re-verification exercise which culminates in the end of March of 202o shall from Hargeisa proceed to other regional and district headquarters of the country, where the national refugee’s agency says large numbers of refugees currently live.
Somaliland is host to refugees from /Ethiopia, Yemenis, Somalia, Burundi, among many other countries including Sri lanka
While a large number of Somalia citizens are registered as refugees in Somaliland where they live and work freely the international community considers them as internally displaced persons.
By: Yusuf M Hasan