News in 2006

05th June 2006

Fury at failed Sudan asylum return policy

The Government's policy of deporting failed asylum seekers back to Sudan was attacked in a report published today.

A number of black Africans from the troubled Darfur region claim they were tortured after the UK returned them to Khartoum, according to the Aegis Trust.

Hundreds more failed asylum seekers who fled the violence in Darfur remain in Britain in "constant fear of detention and deportation to face a terrifying fate", the anti-genocide campaign group said.

The bloody conflict between the Sudanese government and rebels in the western Darfur region has left more than 200,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced since 2003.

The Home Office's most recent statement on Sudanese refugees, published on May 5, states that "ordinary non-Arab ethnic Darfuris are not at risk of persecution outside the Darfur states".

It goes on: "It is considered that it is not unduly harsh to expect them to relocate to an area within Sudan in which they will be safe.

"Freedom of movement outside the war zones is generally unhindered."

Source: The Scotsman