The Somali government calls on compatriots in Switzerland: “Come back, we need you!”

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Drought, hunger and the continued terror of the Islamist Al-Shabab militias: there are good reasons for the 17 million Somalis to flee their desperately poor homeland. Millions have done so since the civil war broke out in the early 1990s.

The vast majority have remained in the neighboring countries of Ethiopia and Kenya. Nearly 9,000 live in Switzerland. There are currently 2,671 in the asylum procedure: Somalia ranks sixth in Swiss asylum statistics, behind Ukraine, Turkey, Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea and Iraq.

If the government in Mogadishu has its way, all these people must now return to Somalia as quickly as possible – despite the hunger crisis that already affects one in four Somalis. Mohamed Ahmed Diiriye (49), the deputy mayor of Mogadishu, tells his compatriots in Switzerland via Blick: “Come back! Your home country has changed. Our fight against the terrorists is successful.”

“Only we Somalis can rebuild our country”

Mohammed Moalim (40) joins this call. The advisor to the Office for Disaster Relief, something called the Somali Civil Defense, said during an interview with Blick in his office in Mogadishu: “Only we Somalis can rebuild our country. Otherwise no one will do it for us. If we start working now, it can work.”

The need for development in the Horn of Africa is enormous. From 1969 to 1991, dictator Siad Barre devastated Somalia. The country subsequently sank into a decades-long civil war. Somaliland and Puntland in the north seceded. Large parts of the south are now controlled by the Islamist terrorist organization Al-Shabab. Three in four farm animals have died in the past five years. It hasn’t rained properly for five years.

But Mohamed Ahmed Diiriye says it’s not all bad. The deputy mayor, who narrowly escaped with his life in an attack on his office in January, emphasizes: “The city has become safer.” For example, you invest in new asphalt roads. There are also various new construction projects around the airport: ideal for returnees.

Somalia would be bankrupt without the refugees

What Ahmed Diiriye ignores when he calls on him to return: Without the roughly $1.6 billion that Somalis abroad send to their homeland every year, people in the world’s most corrupt country would be even worse off, according to the UN. Abroad, the lost daughters and sons benefit the country more than at home in their broken homeland.

Blick asked young Somalis in Mogadishu. Several people agree that Somalis abroad often unconsciously serve as decoys for their relatives and acquaintances who remain behind, for example when they talk on social media about their supposedly good life in Europe.

For Somalis, fleeing to promising countries is extremely dangerous. The month-long journey takes you via Ethiopia, Sudan and Libya across the Mediterranean Sea to the European coast. Along the way, criminal smugglers, so-called “Magaffe”, wait to kidnap the refugees and demand ransom from their families. Yet a young Somali man tells Blick: “If you gave the people here the money for the trip, most of them would leave immediately.”

Switzerland sends rejected asylum seekers back to Somalia

Official Switzerland is not a safe haven for Somali refugees. Since 2018, it has been sending Somalis back to their home country with a negative asylum decision. 168 rejected people have left voluntarily and 7 have been repatriated, writes the State Secretariat for Migration in response to a request from Blick. To alleviate suffering in the Horn of Africa, Switzerland invests approximately 54 million francs annually in the region. A third of each amount will be spent on food aid, security projects and health initiatives.

The Somalian’s prospects Office of Disaster Management Yet there is little hope that the situation will change quickly. By 2030, average temperatures in Somalia are expected to rise another 1.5 degrees. The drought and hunger are becoming even more extreme. And it is unclear whether Ukraine and Russia, where Somalia got about 90 percent of its grain until the outbreak of the war, will be able to supply food again soon. Disaster management consultant Moahmmed Moalim admits: “It will be extremely difficult to even live in this part of the world.”

Source: Blick