7 June 06

Khartoum: 'safe as ghost houses' for UK's Darfur Africans

A report commissioned by the Aegis Trust, published Monday 5 June, lays
bare the dangers for hundreds of African survivors of genocidal violence
in Darfur who, having fled to the UK, are threatened with removal to
Khartoum as failed asylum seekers.  

[List mod.'s note: Report available at 
http://www.aegistrust.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=402&Itemid=88 ]

Published on the day that the United Nations Security Council arrives in
Khartoum, 'Safe as Ghost Houses: Prospects for Darfur African Survivors
Removed to Khartoum' offers a wealth of evidence in support of concerns
expressed by the UNHCR in a position paper issued in February this year
which recommended that 'States provide international protection to
Sudanese asylum-seekers from Darfur of "non-Arab" ethnic background .
according them recognition as refugees'.  

The Home Office claims to have considered the UNHCR Position paper but
does not consider itself bound by its recommendations. Despite the
overwhelming evidence that black African Darfuris are not safe in Darfur
or in Khartoum, the most recent Home Office Position Paper, published 5
May 2006, states: 'ordinary non-Arab ethnic Darfuris are not at risk of
persecution outside the Darfur States and it is considered that it is
not unduly harsh to expect them to relocate to an area within Sudan in
which they will be safe. Freedom of movement outside the war zones is
generally unhindered. Failed asylum seekers are returned to Khartoum
therefore they may remain there or safely relocate to another area.'
This position has been consistent since an Asylum and Immigration
Tribunal hearing a year earlier (AE Sudan, May 2005) ruled that
'ordinary non-Arab ethnic Darfuris' could relocate internally to
Khartoum. 

Since spring 2003 and earlier, Black Africans in Darfur, Western Sudan,
have been systematically 'ethnically cleansed' from the region by Arab
militia and Sudanese Government forces. Over 200,000 have been killed
and around 2.2 million internally displaced.  200,000 have taken refuge
in Chad. Around 3 million people are dependent on humanitarian
assistance because of the crisis.  

It is difficult to be certain of the total number who have claimed
asylum in the UK, since the Home Office offers no breakdown of the
ethnicity of claimants from Sudan, but the Aegis Trust estimates there
are around 1000.  Of 467 contacted by Aegis since October 2005, 179
claimed they had received leave to remain, 152 stated that they were
asylum seekers with claims or appeals in progress, and 136 stated that
they were failed asylum seekers.  

The human impact

The Aegis Trust has interviewed three Darfur Africans who claim to have
been removed to Khartoum as failed asylum seekers from the UK at
different times during the past few years, all of whom claimed torture
following arrival there.  Aegis has also received accounts about Darfur
African asylum seekers from Germany (one), Switzerland (one) and Malta
(four), removed to Khartoum, being imprisoned and tortured or being
detained by the security services and never seen again.  

By their nature, such claims are almost impossible to corroborate or
prove conclusively.  Despite the difficulty of corroborating individual
accounts, however, they are consistent with the record of a regime known
for the extreme brutality of its prisons, police and security services.
It is also difficult - due to the lack of Home Office records - to
establish what percentage of Sudanese, returned to Sudan as failed
asylum seekers, are Darfur Africans and therefore at risk for the
reasons set out in Aegis' report, and likely to have faced torture,
imprisonment or worse.  On the basis of the survey of the Darfur African
community in the UK referred to above, Aegis believes the number to be
quite limited - yet hundreds are evidently at risk of removal.

It is clear that most rejected Darfuris are not removed immediately.
They are left to languish on the streets of towns all over the UK, with
no accommodation, no benefits, no right to work, no medical treatment
for sometimes severe psychological or physical harm suffered in Darfur,
and no freedom from the constant fear of detention and deportation to
face a terrifying fate.  Psychological harm already experienced is
aggravated by their circumstances in the UK. Most of these people have
already suffered unspeakable brutality during attacks on their
communities in Darfur and/or during detention by Arab militia or
Government forces, and have either witnessed the murder of their loved
ones or do not know whether today they are alive or dead.  The treatment
they receive is a disgrace to the UK and amounts to a further denial of
their human rights.

Refugee Council comment

The Refugee Council states:

"Anyone who reads this powerful report will conclude that it is
completely unsafe to return people who've fled from Darfur  to the UK
back to any part of the Sudan.  It demolishes the Home Office's claim
that  Darfuris aren't at risk of persecution outside the Darfur states
and shows that it is just as dangerous for them in the Khartoum region.
The Refugee Council has always recognised that removal is part of a
credible asylum system, but we also believe that the safety of
individuals should come first.  We hope ministers will study this
excellent and timely report  and decide  to halt all removals of
Darfuris until the situation in the Sudan radically improves. Having
fled from the horrors of Darfur, refugees should be able to rebuild
their lives in safety in the UK. "

Report author

Sarah Maguire has extensive experience of the Darfur region of Sudan and
Khartoum. She conducted the inter-agency Real Time Evaluation of the
Humanitarian Response to the Darfur Crisis from September 2004 - August
2005 and an assessment of the UN Development Programme's Darfur Rule of
Law project in January 2006. 

Ms Maguire is a barrister, previously in practice at the Chambers of
Michael Mansfield QC. She was also the Senior Human Rights Adviser in
the UK's Department of International Development (DFID) until 2003,
since when she has been an independent human rights consultant, working
with the UN, international non-governmental organisations and DFID. 

She holds a LLM degree in international law from the University of
London. 

Report title

The 'ghost houses' of the title are anonymous addresses used by Sudanese
security forces as informal prisons.  Former detainees account that any
scant regard for human rights present in conventional prisons is
completely absent in ghost houses, where security forces are able to
torture and kill at will.  In Darfur's somewhat smaller towns, such
addresses are sometimes known and feared by the population.  In the
urban setting of Khartoum, they are far less readily identified.

For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact media
officer David Brown, tel: 01623 836627, mobile: 07812 640873, email:
[log in to unmask]

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