Eritrea accuses Sudan of helping illegal immigrants

NAIROBI, Aug 31 (AFP) — Eritrea has accused Sudan of fostering illegal immigration, dealing another blow to already strained relationship between the two African neighbours.

Sudanese government officials had been “accumulating thousands of dollars from refugees who live in Sudan by misleading and promising to provide them with forged documents in their attempt (to foster) illegal immigration to the West”, the Eritrean information ministry said on its website.

“The files of the illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries are directly kept by senior Sudanese government officials,” the ministry alleged.

“Demanding a lot of money, the officials also assign their mercenaries in a mission to encourage and escort the illegal immigrants to travel to European countries through hazardous and illegal routes.”

“Many people died due to starvation and thirty in the course of the illegal journey sponsored by the Khartoum regime,” the ministry quoted Eritreans who had returned home as saying.

It said the returnees had complained that “mercenaries of the Khartoum regime had deceived them to pay money and abandon them in the desert area”.

Relations between Eritrea and Sudan have worsened in the recent months, with each accusing the other of supporting attempts to overthrow their governments. Neither has proved its accusation.

Last week Sudanese prosecutors charged 15 Eritreans with involvement in the August 27 hijacking of a Libyan plane that was forcibly repatriating them and 58 other Eritreans. The plane was forced to land in Khartoum.