Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries face critical situation

Sept 28, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese refugee commissioner, Mohamed Ahmed al-Agbash, has described the situation of Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries as critical.

He said the number of refugees had reached more than 706,478 refugees. He affirmed the importance of voluntary repatriation of Sudanese refugees abroad so that they could participate in development programmes which the country was implementing following the formation of the Government of National Unity.

In a statement to SUNA, Al-Agbash said statistics concerning Sudanese refugees show that the these refugees were in Egypt, Eritrea, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, DRCongo, Chad, Ethiopia, Central African Republic and the USA.

He said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees had put the number of refugees in the USA at 1600, while in Egypt it was 80,000, and in Chad 209,000, and 223,000 in Uganda.

He said the statistics did not clarify the number of Sudanese in Western countries such as Australia and Canada.

Al-Agbash said the joint technical committee had began studying the suggestion of the tripartite agreement for the voluntary repatriation of Sudanese refugees in Kenya and affirmed the commission’s readiness to prepare an organized legal framework for the organized voluntary repatriation of refugees from all neighbouring countries.

(ST)