Kenyan refugees miss out on HIV services

PlusNews – Salma* is HIV-positive and knows she needs life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs, but visiting a doctor could expose her illegal refugee status in Kenya and risk her being sent to a refugee camp, or worse, back to Somalia.

“If I go to the hospital they will tell the police – I would rather just die here than go back to Dadaab or Somalia,” she told IRIN/PlusNews in Eastleigh, a suburb of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

While most refugees coming to Kenya from neighbouring countries stay in official camps, many travel to urban centres across the country with no documentation. They spend much of their time hiding from the authorities, and struggle to make ends meet, with many women turning to sex work.

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