Eritrea, Ethiopia consider unfriendly refugees resettlement – Sudanese official
April 2, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Eritrea and Ethiopia criticise Sudan because for allowing political opponents to benefit from the UN programme to resettle in the west, the head of Sudan’s refugee body said.
In a speech delivered at a Workshop on foreign presence and its impact on national security Tuesday, the head of the Sudanese Commission for Refugees (SCR) disclosed that Eritrea and Ethiopia consider resettlement programme, which aims to displace Christian Youth to the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe as an unfriendly act.
Mohamed Ahmed Al Aghbash added they say this resettlement programme, which is conducted by the UNHCR, allow the opposition to the regimes in the two neighbouring countries to escape abroad via Sudan.
Recently the government of Sudan has expressed its concern of the mass flee from Eritrea. A local official from the ruling National Party in Kasala said last January the state receive on daily basis between 50 to 70 refugees.
Thousands of Eritrean refugees, many fleeing mandatory military service or jail, have arrived in Sudan in the past year and need help, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) confirmed last February.
The Eritrean opposition also accused Asmara of abducting opponents from refugee camps inside eastern Sudan.
The Sudanese official further added that some of these opponent sale their weapons inside Sudan, a matter that resulted in different incident of looting and fuelling tribal clashes in eastern Sudan.
He added that gangs in the region known as “Shefta” recruit some refugees to implement looting, plundering and killing in the region of Kassala.
Since September last year, rights organisations reported the harassment of Ethiopian refugees by the Sudanese authorities.
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.
Since January other rights groups expressed concern over the frequent arrest of Ethiopian refugees in Sudan by they security service.
(ST)