The Dutch government has insisted a group of failed Somali asylum seekers can be returned home safely, ignoring pleas from human rights activists to halt their deportation. Human Rights Watch says the decision to send eight people back to the war-torn country after their claims were rejected by the Netherlands “is a potential death sentence”.

The Somalis could be put on a plane within the next 24 hours, despite UN guidelines advising against deportations to south-central Somalia. The country has been without a functioning government since 1991 and the militant al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab group regularly carries out fatal attacks. In March, the Mayor of Mogadishu urged the city’s residents to flee, and the UN estimates 44,000 left between April and June.

Listen to an interview with Leslie Lefkow of Human Rights Watch

Stream of complaints
Human Rights Watch is the latest organisation to criticise the Dutch Justice Ministry over the removal plans – earlier this month the Dutch Refugee Network said the move was “irresponsible”.

HRW’s Senior West Africa researcher Leslie Lefkow said: “The reality is that the Somali transitional government controls very little territory. They actually control only a few blocks of Mogadishu, so they’re not in a position to guarantee any kind of security or protection for people being returned to Mogadishu.”

The Dutch government says most Somali asylum applicants in the Netherlands have their requests approved, but claims the eight didn’t meet the requirements for state protection. A Justice Ministry spokeswoman told RNW:

“It’s not that the Minister of Justice thinks it’s a good situation in Somalia. He acknowledges it’s very difficult and worrying over there. That’s why most of the Somalian refugees get asylum in the Netherlands, but not all of them. After research, sometimes we find that they don’t need protection in some cases. If we don’t give someone asylum, someone has the responsibility of returning to their home country.”

Under constant fire
HRW says the eight face threats of violence from insurgents in Mogadishu and would also be affected by daily shelling. In other parts of the country serious human rights abuses are carried out by Islamist Shebab militants. Leslie Lefkox said even if it rejects Somalis' asylum applications, the Netherlands should find another legal way of ensuring their safety. And it’s not the first time this kind of situation has arisen, she adds:

“In other places, other situations – I think for example in the Balkans in the past – people have sometimes been given temporary status until the situation improves in the place  of origin, so this is not an unusual situation in that sense, there are precedents.”

The  Dutch government says it won’t back down on the issue and has promised to release details of a Memorandum of Understanding with the transitional Somali government that forms the legal basis for the deportations, as soon as Mogadishu agrees with to publication.

Too little, too late, says Leslie Lefkow: “A piece of paper signed by the transitional government won’t protect people returned forcibly to Somalia."