Diaspora centres to assist distressed Kenyans

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has unveiled plans to establish six diaspora resource centres abroad, giving distressed Kenyans a safe place to seek assistance when things go wrong overseas, reports the Kenyans. According to a report by the State Department for Diaspora Affairs (SDDA) shared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday, the safe houses will be established in select Kenyan missions over the next three financial years, from 2027/28 to 2029/30. This follows the department’s opening of only one such centre in Thailand during the 2023/24–2025/26 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework period. The single safe house fell short of the two centres targeted, highlighting the slow progress in establishing such facilities. Thus far, the report reveals that the SDDA evacuated and repatriated 4 928 Kenyans in distress from over 20 countries, including Sudan, Myanmar, Thailand and Saudi Arabia. Beyond evacuations, 1 569 Kenyans in distress received counselling and psycho-social support, while 9 548 others accessed mobile consular services across 50 countries. Consular visits were also conducted in 16 countries, including Dubai, Qatar and Lebanon, to check on Kenyans held in prisons, detention and deportation centres. At the same time, there are still rallying calls to evacuate Kenyans on the war frontlines in the Russian-Ukrainian war, with more than 1 000 Kenyans recruited through illegal means, and 19 Kenyans officially confirmed dead. Hundreds of tech-savvy young Kenyans have also fallen victim to a brutal human trafficking crisis across Southeast Asia's ‘Golden Triangle’, spanning Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, recruited through enticing social media ads promising high-paying customer service or IT jobs.

Full report on the Kenyans site