Hagadera market in Dadaab is one of the biggest markets in Dadaab. Majority of the businesses here are run by refugees. This market will be hugely affected if the refugees are repatriated.
Kenya’s government threatened to close the Dadaab refugee camp citing security reasons. The camp, which houses about 350,000 Somali refugees is the world’s biggest refugee camp.
The United Nations refugee agency urged Kenya to reconsider an order to close the teeming Dadaab refugee camp, warning that sending Somali refugees back to their homeland would have “extreme humanitarian and practical consequences”
Hagadera was established in 1992 and is the largest and third oldest camp in the Dadaab operation. The camp has one of the biggest markets in the region and a dynamic economy.
The camp remains highly congested. Most refugees and asylum seekers who arrived to Hagadera in the last few years are staying with relatives but some 20,000 have settled outside the designated camp area in the so-called ‘Hagadera Outskirts’. In order to decongest Hagadera, relocation exercises in 2011, 2012 and 2014 have moved around 2,000 families of about 10,000 individuals to Kambioos camp. It is planned to relocate further refugees to Kambioos.
