Photo: Family members huddle in a makeshift shelter on the outskirts of the overcrowded Dadaab refugee camps. Kenya&nbsp;&copy; Robin Hammond/Panos Pictures
Kenya: Possible Influx Of New Refugees Will Worsen Already Dire Conditions In Camps
Relocating thousands of Somali refugees in Kenya to overflowing and crisis-ridden camps will threaten their own health and exacerbate already disastrous humanitarian conditions, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF) warned today.
Kenyan authorities recently publicly exhorted thousands of Somali refugees living in urban areas of Kenya to uproot and move to refugee camps in Dadaab, a sprawling complex in a vast desert landscape in eastern Kenya. The camps, which together comprise the largest refugee settlement in the world, are already home to close to half a million people, well beyond their original capacity of 90,000. Squalid living conditions and insufficient assistance have been compounded by increasing insecurity in the camps over the last year.
&ldquo;The assistance provided in Dadaab is already completely overstretched and cannot meet existing needs,&rdquo; said Dr. Elena Velilla, MSF&rsquo;s head of mission in Kenya. &ldquo;In the event of an influx of new arrivals, MSF would not be able t