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Refugees being driven to a camp near the eastern Jordanian town of Al-Ruweishid.
Refugees being driven to a camp near the eastern Jordanian town of Al-Ruweishid. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP
Refugees being driven to a camp near the eastern Jordanian town of Al-Ruweishid. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

Sudanese refugees forcibly deported from Jordan fear arrest and torture

This article is more than 8 years old

Hundreds of asylum seekers say they were forced onto planes and subjected to brutal treatment in Khartoum on their return

Hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers are facing persecution in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum after being forcibly deported from Jordan.

Activists and deportees said that Sudanese authorities detained more than 100 people on their return to the capital last month, and some individuals are still missing.

“I’m now exposed to torture and persecution by the government, because I travelled [away] from Sudan,” Saleem, a 27-year-old who fled nearly four years ago, said. “Now I’m back in Sudan, it’s not possible to leave.”

In a mass deportation unprecedented in Jordan’s history, Sudanese men, women and children were flown from Amman’s Queen Alia airport to Khartoum on the morning of 18 December.

Many had been taking part in a month-long tent protest at Amman’s UN human rights offices, demanding support and resettlement, but were rounded up and forced by Jordanian authorities to board the planes to Sudan.

When the refugees landed on Sudanese soil, the authorities are said to have taken fingerprints, phone numbers and confiscated some passports, and although some passengers were allowed to leave the airport to travel to the capital or villages elsewhere, many others were detained.

“I don’t know why the Sudanese government are doing it,” said Ali, who is now stuck in Khartoum. “In the airport they took my phone number, everyone’s… I had my friend with me. Someone came to him and said ‘I want to talk with you’. After that I never seen him [again].”

Ali said many other men were arrested, and he’s anxious about the brutal treatment that they may face. “Torture, I think,” he said. “You don’t know [with] the Sudan government.”

Women and their children sit in a camp in North Darfur. Many of the hundreds deported from Jordan had fled the region. Photograph: Albert Gonzalez Farran/AP

Individuals who say they were released from prison also recounted brutal treatment. Mohammed, who was involved in the Amman protests, disappeared for more than 10 days after arriving in Sudan. When he was released, the young activist said he was moved to an unknown prison where he was kept in isolation for days.

“They asked us many questions,” he said. “I cannot describe what they did to make us answer the questions.”

Sudanese government representatives could not be reached for comment on the treatment of the returned refugees and asylum seekers.

Repression

Various sources have given conflicting accounts of the deportations, and some NGO employees in Khartoum who wished to remain anonymous said they did not witness the arrest of returnees at the airport.

However, researchers have warned that reporting abuses is difficult in Sudan as online communications are often monitored, deterring potential informants from sharing information.

“The situation in Sudan is quite complicated. Generally NGOs are afraid to speak out about the situation because many of them have had their access restricted, especially in Darfur,” explained Khairunissa Dhala, a researcher for Amnesty International.

“There is a practice of repression. The government and security services regularly detain, arrest, torture and ill treat activists and others.”

In Amman, the UNHCR confirmed that the majority of the deportees were from Darfur, a region that has witnesses brutal fighting between rebels and Sudanese government forces.

Civil war broke out in Sudan in 2003, when rebel groups from Darfur began fighting the state, accusing them of marginalization.

Unidentified prisoners are transported in the back of a truck through central Khartoum in Sudan. Photograph: Ben Curtis/AP

The government and its associated militias responded with brutality, and in the years since hundreds of thousands have been killed and 2.5 million displaced, according to the UN.

The UNHCR also said the majority of deportees had registered refugee or asylum seeker status, making their forced repatriation a violation of the principle of non-refoulement – a central concept in international humanitarian law forbidding the returning of people to places where their lives or freedom will be endangered.

“My concern is that the overwhelming majority of the deported refugees are from Darfur and from tribes that are targeted in Sudan. It’s for this reason that they were seeking asylum,” said Niemat Ahmadi, the President of the Darfur Women Action Group.

“Even the people who were not arrested are in danger. They cannot go anywhere. They can be taken at any time. The Sudanese government has many ways of killing people.”

In Khartoum, Ali says he’s worried about what the future holds. Like many of the deportees, he has found himself without a support network, a place to live or a way to make money.

But because of the ever-present risk of deadly militia raids, returning to his village in Darfur is also not an option.

Last week, media and rebel groups reported that 11 people were killed by government militia in the West Darfur village of Mouli, forcing 300 to flee to Darfur’s capital.

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