Sudan vows not to return displaced to their homes without watchdog’s okay
KHARTOUM, Aug 21 (AFP) — The Sudanese government pledged that it would return none of the more than one million people displaced by the civil war in Darfur to their homes without the prior approval of the International Organisation for Migration.
The agreement with the international watchdog, which has directly assisted more than 11 million migrants since its foundation in 1951, came in response to accusations by relief agencies that the government was forcing displaced people to return to their homes against their will.
Under the deal, Sudan agreed to “provide to the IOM adequate advance notice of any internally displaced persons who have indicated to the government of Sudan willingness to return to their area of origin.”
Sudan undertook “to facilitate IOM’s direct assessment and verification of the voluntariness and appropriateness of such returns” and “to accept IOM determination on the voluntariness and appropriateness of returns before returns take place.”
The Sudanese government further committed itself to a “policy of no involuntary return” and to “spare no effort in establishing the necessary security and humanitarian conditions for the phased return to their homes or elsewhere of all displaced persons in the most safe, dignified and efficient manner.”
Sudan agreed to grant “to IOM and programme-implementing partners full access to internally displaced persons and to the communities to which they are returning in accordance with the provision of the joint communique of July 3, 2004.”
This was a reference to an agreement reached with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan under which Khartoum undertook to disarm state-sponsored militias accused of driving many of the diplaced from their homes and provide the necessary security and relief distribution for them to return.
The IOM said that in line with the memorandum it signed with Khartoum, it would ensure that the return of displaced people took place only in accordance with “international principles which identify the rights and guarantees relevant to the protection of displaced persons in all phases of displacement, return or resettlement and reintegration.”
The IOM is not itself a UN agency, although it works closely with the world body.
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees warned Friday after a visit to a displaced persons’ camp in West Darfur that some 30,000 people there were threatening to flee to neighbouring Chad in the face of continued depredations by pro-government militias.