MN SR267

Minnesota Senate expresses concern over April 2014 Kenyan police security operation that arrested approximately 4,000 Somalis and Kenyans of Somali origin in Nairobi and across the country without proper documentation.

Detainees were held in concentration camp-like conditions at Kasarani sports stadium and police stations where Human Rights Watch documented whipping, beating, verbal abuse, and overcrowding with hundreds of people in cells designed for 20.

Detainees included women (some pregnant with miscarriages), children, and elders; some were released only after paying bribes or exchanging sex, and hundreds were deported to Somalia without asylum application opportunities.

Seventeen human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Kenya National Commission on Human Rights characterized the operation as unconstitutional discrimination violating international law protections against torture and forced return to persecution.

Senate resolution directs transmission to the President, Congress, and Minnesota's congressional delegation urging safeguarding of Somali noncombatants in Kenya.