Somali refugees forced home

Somali refugees, particularly in Saudi Arabia, are being forcibly returned to their country, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says, calling on countries to prevent such dangerous moves.

"UNHCR is concerned by the plight of Somalis globally," spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva.

She said that over the last year, Saudi Arabia has expelled some 4,000 Somalis, many of whom arrived in the Arab kingdom on religious grounds.

In the last two weeks alone, it returned some 100 Somalis to their war-torn country, despite the UN's renewed appeal to prevent such forced repatriations.

She said those being returned to volatile parts of Somalia are "people who would be going back to a war zone" and called for anything but voluntary returns to be stopped.

Fleming also noted that other countries, including some in Europe, were setting up barriers to the entry of Somalis seeking asylum.