Khartoum: ?safe as ghost houses’ for UK’s Darfur Africans

A report commissioned by the Aegis Trust, to be published on 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.

June 5, 2006 — 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.

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.

The Aegis Trust

Founded in 2000, the Aegis Trust addresses causes and consequences of genocide and crimes against humanity, working to ensure fulfilment of the responsibility to protect those at risk. It works closely with survivors, educators, academics and policy makers in areas relating to genocide education, research and prevention. Aegis developed from the work of the Holocaust Centre (1995) and is responsible for the Kigali and Murambi Memorial Centres, Rwanda (2004). It coordinates the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for Genocide Prevention.

ENDS

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

The Aegis Trust

Laxton, Newark, Notts NG22 0PA

Tel: 01623 836627

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.aegistrust.org

UK Registered Charity 1082856