UN accused of helping Sudan to arrest Ethiopian refugees

March 16, 2008 (BERLIN) — An Ethiopian rights group based in Berlin, Germany has accused the United Nations refugee body (UNHCR) of delivering Ethiopian refugees in Khartoum to the Sudanese authorities.

Different rights advocacy groups denounced in the past months the narrow collaboration between the Sudanese and Ethiopian authorities against the political opponents to Addis Ababa government.

“Ato Dereje Ayele, a refugee who refused to open his door, was taken out by the UNHCR officials called in by other refugees but was handed over to the Sudanese police by the UNHCR officials,” said Solidarity Committee for Ethiopian Political Prisoners (SOCEPP) on Saturday.
It is not known where he has been taken, SOCEPP added.

The same fate has fallen on Weizero Almaz Mitiku and At Genanaw Mengistu. The acting chairman of the Refugees’Association, Wondimagegn, is still being held in an unknown prison, the group claimd.

There is a serious and legitimate fear that the detained refugees and others may all be deported back to Ethiopia to be victims of repression there.

The Sudanese authorities have stepped up their harassment of Ethiopian refugees, especially in Khartoum. Recently, police have raided at night the houses of refuges and taken away a number of them.

On 27 September 2007, the Sudanese authorities forcibly returned 15 recognised refugees to Ethiopia. They were handed into the custody of Ethiopian security personal at the Ethiopia-Sudan border. Amnesty International said last year.

(ST)