Sudan says 12,000 of its citizens migrated abroad this week

August 6, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The Secretary-General of the Organization of Sudanese Expatriates Affairs (OSEA) in Sudan Haj Magid Siwar disclosed that 12,000 people sought exit visas this week while 4,500 obtained machine-readable passports during the same period.

In November 2012, a report released by the Ministry of Labor highlighted a rapid rate by which Sudanese are migrating which reached 75,631 in the first ten months of that year. It also noted that Sudanese working in the health and education sectors constitute the bulk of the migrants.

The Sudanese minister of Human Resources at the time Amna Dirar told the Council of States at the time that the increase in migration is due to low wages and lack of employment opportunities and the temptations posed by the labor market in the receiving countries.

Sudanese workers abroad especially in the Arab Gulf countries are one of the main sources of hard currency through their remittances they send to their families.

Since the secession of oil-rich south in July 2011, Sudan’s reserves of hard currency started to dry up thus making the local currency fall to record low levels.

(ST)