DHAKA: Kenya has ordered all refugees living in urban areas to return to their camps in a bid to end attacks by armed groups carried out in retaliation for Kenya`s intervention in neighbouring Somalia.

Kenyans were asked to report any refugees or illegal immigrants outside the overcrowded camps - Dadaab in the east and Kakuma in the northwest - to the police.

All refugees residing outside the designated refugee camps of Kakuma and Dadaab are hereby directed to return to their respective camps with immediate effect, reports Al-jazeera.

Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenki

"Any refugee found flouting this directive will be dealt with in accordance with the law," Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said in a statement.

Lenku issued the order citing "emergency security challenges" in Kenyan towns, but the move is likely to be criticised by rights groups which have discouraged similar actions in the past.

Until now, refugees who could support themselves or were in need of specialised education or medical care had been allowed to live in urban areas.

Lenku said "all refugees residing outside the designated refugee camps of Kakuma and Dadaab are hereby directed to return to their respective camps with immediate effect."

The refugees are now required to be housed at Dadaab, close to the Somali border, and at Kakuma, near Kenya`s frontier with South Sudan.

Al Jazeera`s Mohammed Adow said that implenting the directive could prove a daunting task for the government.

"There are a huge chunk of those refugees who live in urban areas who have legal papers. What is the Kenyan government going to do with these people who have the proper papers?" he said.

"There are over four million indigenous Kenyan-Somalis ... who are Kenyan citizens. They have been complaining over the past decade that they have not been issued with the right papers. And the government, in its defence, has been saying it cannot identify who is from across the border or who is a Kenyan. Now what`s going to happen to all those indigenous Kenyans who do not have the right papers?"

BDST: 1247 HRS, MAR 26, 2014