Home Office guidance for caseworkers deciding asylum claims brought by Darfuris makes it clear that the Government believes it is safe to return people to Khartoum. The guidance states: 'The fact that a returnee has unsuccessfully sought international protection in the United Kingdom is likely to be known to the Sudanese authorities.... however a person will not as such be at real risk on return to Khartoum, either at the airport or subsequently, simply because he or she is an involuntary returnee of Sudanese nationality'.
In July 2008, the Home Office decided to stop returning non-Arab Darfuris to Sudan until the Courts said it was safe to do so. Next month the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal will hear a test case to decide whether or not it is safe to return Darfuris to Khartoum.
Background
The Home Office argues that while it is not safe to remove people back to Darfur, it is safe enough to return failed asylum seekers to Khartoum - where there is a sizeable community of non-Arab Darfuris (particularly those from the Fur, Zaghawa, and Massalit groups). They argue that "Neither involuntary returnees nor failed asylum seekers nor persons of military age (including draft evaders and deserters) are as such at real risk on return to Khartoum... A person will not be at real risk on return to Khartoum solely because he or she is of Darfuri origin or non-Arab Darfuri origin. Neither at the airport or subsequently will such a person face a real risk of being targeted for persecutory harm or ill treatment." (HGMO ruling) The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal have assessed however that some may particularly be at risk: including those from 'rebel hot spots' and those heavily involved in rebel or oppositionist political groups.
To find out more on the UK Government's position please find the latest ruling here (valid at 05/08/2008 but these 'country guidance' rulings are changed once a test case is heard so please visit Asylum and Immigration Tribunal's country guidance main site to determine the latest case law).
Why do we oppose removals to Khartoum while the crisis is ongoing?
1. It sends the wrong signal to Khartoum. The Government of Sudan funded, recruited, armed and organised attacks by both the Janjaweed militia and the regular Sudanese military on non-Arab Darfuri villages and towns - killing thousands and driving the survivors into IDP camps. The International Criminal Court Office of the Prosecutor alleges that these attacks constituted evidence of a criminal plan based on the mobilization of the whole state, apparatus, including the armed forces, the intelligence services, the diplomatic and public information bureaucracies, and the justice system. (See ICC OTP report to UN Security Council, 2008, paragraph 62). This plan, according to the ICC prosecutor, was co-ordinated by the President of Sudan.
When states, such as the UK, condemn Sudan's behaviour - they then undermine those words by actions such as sending victims of the attacks back into the arms of the state that persecuted them in the first place.
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| Sadiq showing signs of having been tortured in Khartoum. He had been returned to Sudan after his claim for asylum was rejected by the Home Office. |
2. There is evidence that some failed asylum seekers who are sent back to Khartoum are tortured on their return, because they are then seen as 'oppositionists' merely by the fact of having left Sudan and sought asylum. The Aegis Trust helped one such individual, Sadiq - pictured right, escape from Sudan. His story was reported by the Guardian and Channel 4 News in the UK.
The Aegis Trust has other evidence of returned asylum seekers being tortured and/or beaten on their return. This was gathered by sending investigators into Khartoum to track down and interview returned asylum seekers from the UK, Europe and Middle Eastern countries. This evidence will be submitted in future country guidance test cases - please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more details.
3. If returned asylum seekers are sent back to Khartoum the conditions they face in the IDP and squatter camps around Khartoum can be worse than they face in Darfur. Internally displaced people are liable to have their homes demolished, face forced relocation, detention and mistreatment.
Recent events after the May 2008 attack on Khartoum/Omdurman by rebel group JEM demonstrate the dangers of arbitrary detention and disappearances for Darfuris living in Khartoum. The Aegis Trust, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty documented hundreds of cases of Darfuris who were swept up by the security forces and illegally detained and tortured. Many are still unaccounted for.
Read more: 'Safe as Ghost Houses' Report (June 2006).
Take action:
Please contact Anna Macdonald for more details of how you can be involved.
