Khartoum,Al-Yurea-(SUNA) – Last week, a central state refugee assistant, Abdessalam Norin, revealed a number of challenges to the protection of Ethiopian, Eritrean and Southern Sudanese refugees.
He stated that the challenges are that the High Commissioner for Refugees has evaded completing the registration procedures for South Sudanese refugees (urban refugees) and the situation of Ethiopian and Ertri refugees as a result has not been legalized, according to the Sudan News Agency.
Following Noureddine’s remarks, Axel Bishop, Sudan’s high commissioner for refugees, went to inform the news agency that Sudan was hosting one million refugees and displaced persons, noting that the largest number of South Sudanese and other refugees from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Chad and Syria.
Several official bodies, including Sudan’s foreign minister in the previous government, have already disagreed with figures provided by the Refugee Affairs Organization, where many believe that the real number of refugees in Sudan is tens times higher than that of the organization, as most migrants to Sudan do not register with official immigration services or use the services of humanitarian organizations, the majority of whom are integrated into communities in the peripheral regions bordering the border.
During the limited press briefing yesterday at UNHCR offices in Khartoum, Bishop reviewed the UNHCR program and its offices in the states, explaining that the Sudanese state has opened its doors since 1960 the beginning of the influx of refugees from Ethiopia, adding that Sudanese society has directly contributed to the reception and hosting of refugees.
Bishop said most refugees do not want to go back to their countries because the reasons for asylum are not gone.
Bishop said UNHCR was working with the Sudanese government to codify the refugee situation, adding that the refugees were two types of urban ists and others in the camps.
“The main goal is to have sustainable or long-term solutions, especially the South Sudanese refugee, where there are some understandings between the two countries to extend the four freedoms,” he said.
With regard to Darfur, the High Commissioner said UNHCR was helping the government reconcile the situation of displaced persons and the Sudanese government had adopted a national plan to protect civilians in Darfur with its partners from relevant UN agencies.
He pointed out that sustainable solutions for the displaced are the voluntary return of displaced persons to their villages of origin, stressing that UNHCR is working to address the problems of displaced persons with its partners and revealed that the annual budget of UNHCR is estimated at 350 million dollars and is the largest UN agency in Africa and operates 16 offices in Sudan.
Bishop explained that UNHCR is implementing its programs in Sudan in partnership with refugee accredited personnel and have offices in the states, noting that the humanitarian assistance provided by UNHCR is tents and non-food supplies provided by foreign markets or local markets and that the slogan of World Refugee Day is a right of safety and is an authentic and necessary right
Sudan, in addition to its critical economic situation, is suffering from internal conflicts due to large illegal displacements and migrations from neighboring countries, west, east and south, as a transit route to the north of the African continent and European countries.
