NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya's interior minister says the government has extended by six months its deadline for sending home at least 280,000 Somali refugees to close the world's largest refugee camp in Kenya's east.

Joseph Nkaissery said Wednesday the government extended the November 30 deadline after the U.N. refugee agency requested a postponement. He denied Kenya is coercing refugees to return to war-torn Somalia.

Amnesty International and refugees who had returned to Somalia said Tuesday that Kenyan authorities were forcing them to go back to Somalia where they risk getting killed or being forcibly recruited into the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab.

Some who voluntarily returned to Somalia from Dadaab camp told The Associated Press they are now facing hunger despite promises that they would be assisted.