Speech #960192938

Since then. I have tried to maintain ties with Somalia. . I am deeply saddened by the tragic. overwhelming refugee problem confronting the country today. Somalia. according to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees. has the largest refugee camp population in the world. In midJanuary 1980. that small country of 3.4 million people has 474.000 refugees in camps. The Somali Government itself estimates that. for every one refugee in camps. two others roam the countryside in need of food. clothling. and medicine. That means there are almost 1.5 million refugees. or over onethird of Somalis total normal population.. No other nation on Earth has such a high proportion of refugees in country. These statistics are more appalling when one realizes that the vast majority of the refugees are women and children. Again. according to the UNHCR. of the 474.000 refugees in camps. 153.000 are children under the age of 6. A total of 420.000 are women and children under the age of 15. The refugees are both ethnic Somalis and Oromo from southern Ethiopia. It is inexplicable to me that a tragedy of such proportions is virtually unknown in the United States. Outside of a few newspaper articles. and a statement submitted on December 5. 1979. in the CONGRESsIoNAL REcoRD by Senator KEnNmy. there has been little. if any. awareness of the magnitude of the need. the immediacy of the problem. and the potential for thousands. if not tens of thousands. of deaths in the near future. unless something is done. First. it is clear that Somalia is in danger of being overwhelmed by the flood of refugees. Both the UNHCR and UNICEF vouch for the statistics on the number of refugees in camps and the overwhelming majority of young children and women. Two respected Swedish professors of international law. Dr. Goran Melander and Dr. Peter Nobel. recently visited Somalia. Their findings. in October were as follows: More than 350.000 refugees from Ogaden and other areas of almost entirely Somali and rural origin are receiving emergency assistance in camps located in five regions. Most of them are children. A carefully administered registration routine lends high credibility to refugee statistics. An estimate. hitherto undisputed. indicates another 650.000 refugees in Somalia outside the camps. Little is known about their situation. The needs of encamped refugees are urgent. Serious shortage is recorded. notably for food. medicine and shelter. For programs aiming at rehabilitation and selfsupport for the refugees. there are no means available. The Somali Government has committed itself on a high level manifest in the establishment of qualified and efficient legal and administrative machineries for dealing with the refugee problems. as well as in a generous sharing of land and meager resources with the refugees. There is no sign of a decrease in the daily rate of newly arriving safety seekers. which is probably near to 1.000. Having a larger refugee population registered in camps than any other country in the world and making the greatest possible efforts to meet this unending and tremendous problem. Somalia has to this day not received more than small and hopelessly underproportioned shares of help from the international community. Second. there can be no doubt. but that Somalia is incapable of providing the basic needs for these refugees. It is an incredibly poor country with a per capita income of $70. In October 1979. the Somali Government requested $71 million in bilateral or multilateral assistance to feed. clothe. shelter. and provide medicine to a registered refugee population of 350.000. Even if -all that assistance were immediately forthcoming. it wouldbe inadequate. since the refugees continue to stream into Somalia at the rate of 1.000 per day. This accounts for the rapid rise in refugee camp population to 474.000 by midJanuary 1980. Rations for the refugees are inadequate. The ideal daily ration is supposed to be 100 grams of rice. 200 grams of millet or sorghum. 60 grams of sugar. 60 grams of oil. 100 grams of bread. 60 grams of powdered milk. and a little tea. One who served in the Peace Corps with me visited Somalia in October and found that. at the camp he visited. the ration was only onethird of that.