The intergovernmental International Organization for Migration (IOM) has issued a denial that it took a position on the possibility for deported Somalis to return to their homeland.
Finland's Supreme Administrative Court had used an IOM report as one of its many sources when the Court ruled in December that two Somalis convicted of crimes here could be deported back to Somalia (see attached article).
The Supreme Administrative Court's decision leant on a note in the report according to which members of the Ishaak clan could receive support from their clan and would thus be able to get back into society in Somaliland, the more peaceful northern part of Somalia.
The two deportees both belong to this clan.
According to IOM representative Thomas Lothar Weiss, the report did not refer to the return of deportees from abroad, but to internal displacement within Somalia itself. The organisation takes no stand on deportations.
The IOM's report from May 2007 comprises answers to questions sent by the Finnish Immigration Service, who requested information on the position of Ishaak clan members returning to Somalia from abroad. The IOM replied that it had no information on the matter.
Riku Santaharju, a researcher at the Immigration Service, still believes the report can be applied to others besides those internally displaced within Somalia.
"The IOM statements indicate that Ishaak clan members can return to Somaliland regardless of whether they have lived there before. My own take on the matter is that this interpretation can be extended to include those returning from abroad who belong to this clan", says Santaharju.
"Because of their clan background they have relatives there and a support network that will allow them to integrate into Somaliland."
