Britain lifts ban on deportation of Darfuri to Sudan
July 7, 2008 (LONDON) — British government has lifted the ban on deporting Darfur asylum seekers to the Sudan despite efforts by rights activists of draw the risks that they are facing there.
The Home Office announced on 10 December 2007 that it had halted all deportations of Darfuri asylum seekers, pending an investigation into growing evidence that Darfuris are being tortured when they are returned to Khartoum.
One Darfuri asylum seeker has already been sent back to Sudan by the Home Office. A second Darfuri, Abubaker Yousef Mohamed, is due to be deported on Sunday 13 July, a British rights group, Waging Peace, said today.
Mohamed is alleged to have been detained for two months and beaten the last time he was deported. Other Darfuri asylum-seekers have been told to expect deportation.
He was also among a number of refugees who Waging Peace revealed had been illegally interviewed by Sudanese Embassy officials in Home Office facilities last year.
The Home Office has gave the go-ahead for the deportation despite the position of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees opposed to the return of Darfuris to Khartoum, saying they face torture or death.
Sudanese and international human rights organizations issued alarming reports on the indiscriminate detention and torture of Darfuri in the capital following an attack by the rebel Justice and Equality Movement against the Sudanese government in Khartoum on May 10.
Mohamed, a JEM activist, 33, was arrested six weeks ago in London as he travelled to a meeting with his solicitors. He was sent to Oakington immigration removal centre, Cambridgeshire. He will be deported on 13 July.
He fled from Darfur to Turkey in 2003 after a raid on his village during which his brother had been killed and his wife had vanished. But he was sent back to Sudan and arrested on his return to Khartoum. During two months’ custody he says he was beaten with gun butts, metal rods and hoses. A guard helped him escape and he travelled to Libya, France and then Britain.
(ST)