South Asia Refugees in Delhi Part 4: Somalian migrants enjoy peace but deportation, racial discrimination looms large

[Dogun18]

Date of Event: Sep 30, 2017

Source : https://www.firstpost.com/india/refugees-in-delhi-part-4-somalian-migrants-have-left-war-far-behind-but-price-of-peace-is-their-progress-4095251.html Short Summary: Over 1.1 million Somali refugees remained in neighbouring countries and the wider diaspora. As violence intensified in Yemen, Somalis who had fled continued to return home. By the end of the year, over 30,500 Somalis were back

“I don’t know where my parents are, and I don’t know where my family is. I need them here with me,” wept 17-year-old Abdullah Ibrahim, before a dark silence numbed him over. He stared into the grimy wall of an Arabic restaurant in South Delhi’s Khirki village, where he works as an errand boy.

He opened four folds of a blue paper and called it his only possession. The “blue card” is an identification issued by the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees, but in the eyes of the Indian State, it has no legal validity.


In 2016, Ibrahim fled Galkayo, a district in Somalia’s north-central Mudug region. Clashes between rival militias Galmudug and Puntland in central Galkayo city had killed at least 29 and wounded more than 50. The district is under the divided control of the warring militias, and last year, when conflict erupted over buildings planned in the region, schools were forced to shut and civilians fled for their lives.