U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants World Refugee Survey 2007 - Sudan

Refoulement/Physical Protection

In May, the National Intelligence and Security Services deported four Ethiopian asylum seekers who were members of a political opposition group and who risked prosecution and the death penalty in Ethiopia for treason, before the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or the Sudan Commissioner for Refugees (COR) could evaluate their claims. Between mid-May and early-September alone, the Government deported 18 asylum seekers and 6 refugees despite UNHCR's protests. Local authorities in Southern Sudan and Darfur, however, generally respected the principle of nonrefoulement.

In March 2007, the population in Um Shalaya refugee camp in West Darfur grew to over 4,000 after 550 Chadian refugees requested transfer to the interior to escape insecurity near the border; about 16,000 Chadian refugees lived on the Chad-West Darfur border in 2006. UNHCR halted repatriation of Eritrean refugees based on the deterioration of conditions in that country, but domestic insurgency also wracked eastern Sudan where the Government located most of the Eritrean camps. Police in Khartoum North regularly raided the homes of Ethiopian refugees, beat them, and used tear gas against them.

According to UNHCR, arbitrary refugee status determinations, limited geographical coverage, and inadequate Government registration and documentation caused "severe protection challenges" requiring its constant intervention. Sudan had no standard procedure for adjudication. COR employed over 750 workers and depended entirely on UNHCR for its budget. COR's interviews in Wad Sharife were substandard and yet COR regularly accumulated a backlog, generally due to poor work attendance, low interview rates, and its occasional suspensions of the process altogether. COR did not maintain files but delegated them to UNHCR. The Sudanese Red Crescent registered applicants and provided interpreters. In Khartoum COR screened applicants without interpreters, prescreening information, or counseling, and often only after UNHCR intervened. National Security (NS) officials took final decisions on asylum applications, but in Khartoum, neither agency notified those rejected in writing, making appeal difficult.

Sudan tolerated newly arriving Chadians in Darfur and recognized them as prima facie refugees upon transfer to UNHCR-assisted refugee camps. Southern Sudan also tolerated refugees, even though no refugee status determinations occurred, and it was unclear whether COR or the South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission was responsible for performing them.

Sudan was party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Convention), its 1967 Protocol, and the 1969 Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa (African Refugee Convention), but retained a reservation to the 1951 Convention's right to freedom of movement. The 1974 Regulation of Asylum Act (Asylum Act) established COR, defined refugee generally following the 1951 and African Refugee Conventions, but did not prohibit refoulement. It gave the Minister of Interior or his delegates the right to grant asylum for renewable periods of five years. If the Minister failed to decide on applications within one month, the Asylum Act deemed them granted, at least for a renewable period of three months. The Asylum Act had no provisions for appeal.

In February 2006, the Democratic Republic of Congo, UNHCR, and Sudan signed a tripartite agreement for repatriation of Congolese and Sudanese refugees, beginning with 6,800 Congolese refugees – most of whom have been in exile since the late 1960s. UNHCR facilitated the voluntary repatriation of some 850 Congolese refugees from Southern Sudan, part of the population of about 1,500 refugees who had lived in Juba for decades.

The 1998 Constitution provided that "everyone who has lived in Sudan during their youth or who has been resident in Sudan for several years has the right to Sudanese nationality in accordance with law," but Sudan did not allow refugees to become permanent residents or naturalize, regardless of how long they had lived in the country.

Detention/Access to Courts

In November, Sudanese authorities conducted house-to-house searches for and arrests of undocumented foreigners in Greater Khartoum State, including Khartoum (Centre), Khartoum North, and Omdurman cities. UNHCR identified 392 of them – including 221 Ethiopians and 165 Eritreans – as persons of concern, most with refugee documents, and obtained the release of 353. The NS and Military Intelligence services also arrested refugees and asylum seekers arbitrarily on suspicion of espionage activities or to force their cooperation. In February 2007, police arrested Ethiopian asylum seekers seeking protection at the UNHCR office in Khartoum with plans to deport them, including a pregnant mother with two small children.

Immigration and judicial authorities granted UNHCR access to Omdurman prison and allowed it individual access almost all of the 1,041 foreign detainees it found there. UNHCR also monitored the district courts and Omdurman Prison to assess the status of foreign nationals undergoing trial or already sentenced. UNHCR lawyers secured the release of 66 persons of concern in hearings before the courts of Greater Khartoum State and 59 persons of concern from Omdurman Prison. UNHCR did not have access to the detention facilities of the NS service.

Asylum seekers generally did not receive identity documents. Prima facie refugees in Southern Sudan or Darfur did not receive them either. When COR did issue refugees cards, they were valid only for a year or less. COR charged fees for issuing or renewing refugee documents ranging from about $0.80 to $12 each.

The 1998 Constitution provided that "all persons" were equal before the law, but only Sudanese were "equal in the rights and duties of public life without discrimination based on race, sex or religion." The Constitution also extended to all its protections against arbitrary deprivation of liberty, due process provisions, and rights to effective remedies. The Asylum Act allowed authorities to detain refugees "if it is found necessary." It also required COR to issue identity renewable cards to all refugees valid "for the period during which the refugee is granted permission to stay," i.e., for five years or more.

Freedom of Movement and Residence

Authorities generally confined about 110,000 Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees to 12 camps in poor conditions in arid eastern Sudan, some for 40 years. In November, authorities sentenced seven refugees to prison terms of up to six months for leaving the camps. For arbitrary fees, NS officials might grant travel permits for those refugees who required special medical treatment, had close family members, or had registered at a university in Khartoum.

New arrivals in eastern Sudan could not leave the Wad Sharife area until their refugee status determinations were complete. The Government required refugees that left the camps to return to their original camp in order to renew their IDs, further inhibiting movement. About four fifths of the refugees that arrived in 2006 – many of them young, educated male Eritreans – left eastern Sudan without permits, probably for Khartoum. With this influx, officials in the capital increasingly tolerated refugees with identity cards from Kassala state in eastern Sudan. The vast majority of the 165 Eritreans UNHCR found in detention in November, however, held COR refugee identity documents from Kilo 26 refugee camp in Kassala state. Prima facie refugees in Southern Sudan and Darfur could move about in the region, but risked arrest if they left those areas.

UNHCR, through COR, issued 70 international travel documents to refugees.

Sudan maintained a general reservation to the 1951 Convention's right to freedom of movement and the Constitution reserved to citizens its right to freedom of movement. The Asylum Act provided for up to a year in prison for any refugee who left "any place of residence specified for him." The Asylum Act also allowed the Minister of Interior to provide refugees with passports and, under exceptional circumstances, allowed the Minister of Foreign Affairs to issue them diplomatic ones.

Right to Earn a Livelihood

Although provincial governments allowed refugees to farm and work locally, security officials often prevented employers from hiring Ethiopian refugees. Refugees had informal businesses and service jobs, but often at positions below their qualifications. The Government barred refugees from work in state enterprises, reportedly because they lacked Sudanese military service books. The Department of Labour's process for obtaining permits was very bureaucratic and expensive.

The Government restricted lawyers from practicing law, and doctors and teachers needed to obtain licenses from the Ministries of Health and Education, respectively, before practicing. Refugee teachers in camp schools in eastern Sudan could only serve officially as "helpers."

The Constitution was silent on the right to work, but reserved to citizens its right to join unions. The Asylum Act expressly forbade refugees from working in security or defense-related industries and required permission from the Department of Labour with notice to the Ministry of Interior to work in any other sector.

COR allowed some 1,300 families in Um Gargour refugee camp and some 500 families in Abuda refugee camp to farm state-owned land but not to own any. Local authorities in Jonglei state in Southern Sudan also allowed refugees to farm. Documented refugees could own movable property and open bank accounts, but if they needed property to run a business, they had to register it under the names of Sudanese nationals.

The Constitution extended to "everyone" its protection of property rights, but the Asylum Act expressly provided that "no refugee shall own lands or immovables in the Sudan." The Asylum Act also required COR to register the movable property of each refugee "so as to permit him to take them away with him on his return," but there were no reports that it did so.

Public Relief and Education

Refugees in the 12 camps in eastern Sudan were dependent on humanitarian assistance that had diminished over the years. According to UNHCR, camp conditions were "below the acceptable level of standard indicators in such key sectors as education, water and sanitation." Only one third of refugee households had latrines, and food aid did not reach 30 percent of the population. Infant and maternal mortality rates were high due to malaria, respiratory disease, diarrhea, and malnutrition.

Refugees had access to local health services. Hospitals, however, would not admit patients unless they had sponsors to provide them with food and other necessities, which was an obstacle for some refugees. Through nongovernmental organization (NGO) partners, UNHCR managed clinics in all refugee camps in eastern Sudan and allowed local Sudanese to receive treatment there free of charge. Refugees benefited from Government medical referrals and the Islamic welfare system (zakat) run by the Government.

Refugees in urban areas had access to public education on par with nationals. However, because public schools followed an Islamist curriculum and used Arabic as the language of instruction, refugees of a Christian background sometimes sent their children to private school. UNHCR funded COR to run primary schools in the camps in the east. The camps in eastern Sudan did not have secondary schools.

Sudan restricted humanitarian groups' access to the Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees in eastern Sudan. The escalating violence in Darfur prevented aid workers from reaching Chadian refugees, with the risks highlighted by the murders of eight humanitarian workers in July. Soon after the international NGO Medair moved 3,000 Chadian refugees to the Um Shalaya camp, rebel groups destroyed two of their vehicles. In the first half of the year, due to activity of the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army, the UN declared most areas south and east of Juba to be at security phase IV and allowed emergency operations only. The Cessation of Hostilities Agreement in August improved the situation until September when militia ambushed civilian vehicles just outside of Juba on the Nimule, Torit, and Mangalla roads. In November, fighting between the Sudan People's Liberation Army and the military in Malakal and many other local conflicts also limited humanitarian access.