153 Sudanese refugees stranded in Niger return to Khartoum  

March 21, 2023 (KHARTOUM) – A joint team from the Secretariat of Sudanese Working Abroad (SSWA) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Tuesday received at least 153 Sudanese nationals from Niger.

The group, including families stranded in Niger, arrived at Khartoum Airport.

The returnees’ arrival is within the framework of the migrant protection and reintegration project funded by the European Union and implemented by IOM in cooperation and coordination with SSWA, the Foreign Affairs and Interior ministries as well as authorities from Khartoum International Airport.

The necessary studies, authorities told Sudan’s New Agency (SUNA), has been conducted for the Sudanese returnees, including their restriction, registration and initial medical care as well as the procedures for assessing the degree of fragility of returnees under taken in the SSWA headquarters.

All measures undertaken reportedly come as part of the attention of the SSWA to the Sudanese presence abroad and follow-up on their issues and problems, especially those stranded abroad and their irregular migration.

In January 2020, authorities in neighboring Niger forcibly broke up a sit-in of Sudanese refugees outside the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the arid area of Agadez, while some of them reportedly set ablaze the camp once returned by the police.

The protest were reportedly caused by what refugees described as bad conditions in the camps, while others blamed UNHCR officials for neglecting them pointing to the long delay in the processing of asylum requests.

On 7 May 2018, police in Niger deported 135 Sudanese refugees to Madama and expelled them to Libya as they had already protested the bad conditions in Agadez camp. Critics denounced the move by Niger as a violation of international law.

(ST)