20100723
africanews

GENEVA (Reuters) - Somali refugees are being harassed and rounded up in Kenya and the semi-autonomous enclave of Puntland in the wake of deadly bombings by al Shabaab Islamist rebels in Uganda, the United Nations said on Friday.

Authorities in Puntland sent back more than 900 displaced Somalis to the conflict zone in central Somalia this week, but so far Kenya has not deported Somalis who can prove they have refugee status, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.

"Against the backdrop of recent terrorist attacks, we have noted growing numbers of incidents of xenophobia, round ups and deportations of displaced Somalis," Melissa Fleming, UNHCR spokeswoman, told a news briefing in Geneva.

"We are calling on the Puntland authorities to halt these push-backs," she added.

People fleeing fighting in southern and central Somalia need international protection and forced returns to that part of the country place their lives at "grave risk", according to UNHCR.

"We fear those who have fled for very good reason, young men in the age group between 18 and 25, are very often targeted for recruitment by al Shabaab," Fleming said.

Al Shabaab, a hardline Islamist rebel group with links to al Qaeda, controls much of southern Somalia, bordering northeastern Kenya, and is fighting to topple the Western-backed government in the Horn of Africa nation.

Somali Islamist insurgents have killed two African Union peacekeepers in fighting in the capital, Mogadishu, a spokesman for the AU peacekeeping force said on Friday .