The group revealed that the government of Kenya has provided no evidence that the four individuals posed any such threat.
The Police Reforms Working Group Kenya (PRWG-K) on Monday, October 21 responded to the confession by the government of Kenya to deport four Turkish nationals who were allegedly abducted on Friday last week in Nairobi, back to their home country.
In a statement obtained by Viral Tea, the group expressed its shock by the government’s admission that Kenyan law enforcement and foreign affairs agencies played a role in the “refoulement and forced return” of Mustafa Genç, Öztürk Uzun, Alparslan Taşçı, and Hüseyin Yeşilsu, four Turkish nationals from Kenya to Turkey.
“The principle of non-refoulement is a cornerstone of refugee protection. It has been recognised in international humanitarian law for more than seventy years,” the statement read in part.
“The 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, the 1969 OAU Convention on refugees and the 2021 Refugee Law of Kenya explicitly prohibit the return of refugees to a place where they are likely to face the very danger from which they fled. These obligations cannot be traded for commercial, diplomatic or trade interests without violating both national and international law.”
Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei. /FILE
According to the group, international refugee law recognizes that refugees may only be returned if they pose a danger to national security or, after due process, are found guilty of a crime that threatens the safety of others.
The group thus revealed that the government of Kenya has provided no evidence that the four individuals posed any such threat.
“While the law recognizes there are exceptions to the principle of non-refoulment, the law also provides procedural safeguards. Rather than returning asylum seekers to governments that they had fled from, a third country for safe resettlement could have been found,” added the statement.
Per PRWG-K’s remarks, the government had placed four human beings at grave risk as well as Kenya’s standing as a sanctuary nation for those fleeing persecution and war.
Through this move, the government was also accused of undermining Kenya’s credibility as the newest member of the United Nations Human Rights Council and torpedoing the United Nations Universal Periodic Review process planned for next year.
“This weekend’s breach punctures Kenya’s legal commitments and its international moral standing and threatens three decades of confidence in Kenya’s humanitarian protection for the 780,000 refugees on Kenyan soil who need it today,” the group further noted.
This came after Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei revealed that the four were returned to the Turkish government on October 18, 2024, honouring a request made by the Turkish government.
According to the PS, Kenya acceded to the request on the strength of the robust historical and strategic relations anchored on bilateral instruments between our respective countries. The four had been residing in Kenya as refugees.
Sing’oei further noted that the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs has received assurances from the Turkish authorities that the four would be treated with dignity in keeping with national and international law.
The four Turkish nationals were allegedly abducted on October 18, 2024, along with three others. While the three were eventually released, the four Turks remained in captivity.
