Sudan ready to help nationals in Iraq return home

KHARTOUM, May 22, 2005 (Xinhua) — The Sudanese government expressed on Sunday its readiness to offer necessary support and facilitation for some 70 Sudanese nationals in Iraq to return home.

Minister of State in the Sudanese Foreign Ministry Tijani Salih Fideil told reporters that the Sudanese Foreign Ministry is conducting intensive consultations with the Sudanese Embassy in Baghdad on the situations of some 70 Sudanese nationals who worked in Iraq.

The Sudanese nationals have reportedly decided to leave Iraq amid widespread violence in the war-torn country, but they were not allowed to enter Jordan and had to stay in Iraqi boundary areas.

Fideil said the nationals were residing in a camp about 400 km from Baghdad.

According to a statement issued by the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, the Sudanese Embassy in Baghdad was exerting utmost efforts to settle the issue.

But Fideil said after the embassy made contacts with the Sudanese nationals to arrange for their return to Sudan, they were shocked that the nationals just wanted to seek asylum in other foreign countries.