Refugees in Kenya's camp take to Twitter to urge users 'to take action' amid crisis

Refugees living in camps in Kenya are urging Twitter users to voice outrage at the ongoing refugee crisis and take action by posting video messages using the hashtag #TakeAction.

This week, rights organisation Amnesty International launched a campaign dubbed I Welcome just days after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order effectively preventing refugees from seeking haven in the US, barring people who are fleeing persecution from war-torn countries from entering the country.

Those affected by the ban include many of the more than 500,000 refugees living in Kenya's overcrowded and underfunded refugee camps.

As part of the campaign, the organisation's teams on the ground in camps respond to tweets from around the world which mention the crisis. They record refugees' answers to tens of thousands of questions before forwarding their responses via video message to the person who asked the question.

"Thank you for tweeting about the refugee crisis. I really appreciate that you have not forgotten about us, but tweeting is not enough," Abu, who is living in Kenya's Kakuma camp, said in reply to social media user @sarabashiri.

"Here in Kakuma refugee camp in Northern Kenya, hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled ear and violence. I had to run to escape persecution and now I am supporting my disabled aunt alone."

The young man continued: "To have a future, I need an education, but I might have to drop out of school because we don;t have enough to eat, or money for the right medicine. That's why I'm asking you to take action."

In a second video message, Leila, who is also a refugee living in Kakuma, thanked user @hehju "for speaking out". One of the thousands of single mothers in the camp struggling to raise their children, Leila, who fled Somalia's war when she was four, said: "Our food rations have been cut again and I cannot afford the uniforms for my three kids to go to school. Like any mum anywhere, what I want is a good future for my children."

The idea behind the campaign? Creating support for a global solution to the refugee crisis, particularly the poor conditions faced by refugees, which Amnesty's communications director Osama Saeed Bhutta believes "can be solved".

"It will take genuine leadership and political will," Bhutta said. "That's why we're calling on everyone to take action and help us pressure governments around the world to do the same. This is a global crisis that requires a global response. The problem is not the number of refugees but that far too few nations are sharing responsibility for supporting refugees. And it is the wealthiest nations that do least."

Amnesty is urging people to sign a petition to present to the Secretary-General of the UN on 6 February, calling for the UN, and governments around the world, to work together and tackle the global refugee crisis.