While Nairobi acknowledged on Monday, October 21, that it had sent four Turks back to their country at the end of last week, the news is having a hard time getting through in Kenya. The reason: the absence of any justification for this decision, other than Ankara’s request. Human rights organizations denounce a flagrant violation of the right to asylum.
Nairobi’s return of four Turkish refugees to their country at Ankara’s request has caused some uproar in Kenya. “The principle of non-refoulement […] cannot be exchanged for commercial or diplomatic interests,” the Working Group on Police Reform, which brings together a dozen Kenyan NGOs and civil society organizations, said in a statement. The platform also noted the irony of such a decision given that Kenya has just joined the UN Human Rights Council.
The four men sent back to Turkey are suspected by the Turkish authorities of being linked to the Gülen schools founded by the preacher Fethullah Gülen who recently died in the United States, a man accused by Ankara of fomenting a coup against the regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016. One of them was the director of the Light Schools Academy, a very elitist establishment of the Turkish community.
In its press release, the Kenyan Ministry of the Interior assures that it has received a guarantee from Ankara that these men will be treated “with dignity, according to international law”.
“Turkey is a privileged partner of Kenya, particularly in terms of defense. It is very involved in Somalia,” explains a researcher in this field, who prefers to remain anonymous. Last year, the two countries signed a defense and industrial cooperation agreement.