http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/May-05/255355-sudan-mans-search-for-better-life-dies-in-desert.ashx#axzz30qB1fkCp
Sudan man's search for better life dies in desert
May 05, 2014 12:06 AM
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News ::
http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
DONGOLA, Sudan: Alaadeen put himself in the hands of people smugglers to
take him somewhere better than impoverished eastern Sudan but he never made
it.
The 22-year-old Sudanese man was among 10 illegal immigrants who died when
traffickers abandoned their group of about 300 in the scorching desert on
the Sudanese-Libyan border, a relative in Alaadeen's hometown of Kassala
told AFP by telephone Sunday.
"He was looking for a better life," said the relative who asked not to be
named. "Some people with him told us that he had died."
Alaadeen, whose full name the relative declined to reveal, was the son of a
trader doing business on the Sudanese-Eritrean border near Kassala, he said.
Al-Sudani daily said Sunday that the young man and several other Sudanese
were among the 10 victims.
The Foreign Ministry said the dead also included two Ethiopians, an
Eritrean and a victim whose nationality was unknown.
The relative said that Alaadeen had gone with the traffickers of his own
accord.
"He was taken by smugglers from the Kassala area to Khartoum before going
on to Dongola," a Nile River town about 500 kilometers northwest of the
capital, he said.
Libya's border is more than a day's drive from there.
The desert region stretching from eastern Sudan up through Egypt to the
Sinai Peninsula is a major route for African migrants seeking a better life.
Thousands of Eritreans, in particular, make the journey each year. Many
head for Israel while others try to get to Europe.
"Some of them try to go through Egypt. Some of them try to go through
Libya," said a source familiar with the situation.
"They would try to cross the Mediterranean Sea via Libya."
Sudanese officials announced the rescue of the illegal migrants Wednesday,
saying that traffickers had dumped their victims in the border region's
scorching desert, where 10 died.
Sudanese and Libyan troops initially rescued about 300 hungry and thirsty
survivors, but they later came across even more.
A convoy of trucks escorted by security forces from both countries
delivered the migrants to safety in Dongola Saturday after a journey of
hundreds of kilometers across the desert.
Women and children were among the survivors who reached the town. Most of
the victims appeared to be Ethiopian or Eritrean, but there were some
Sudanese as well.
An AFP journalist in Dongola said that the migrants were still at an
immigration facility in the town early Sunday.
The International Organization for Migration told AFP that it hoped to
"provide necessary assistance" to the group.
UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, has also said it "would stand
ready to provide support" should the migrants be refugees.
At Alaadeen's family home in Kassala, visitors arrived to offer condolences
and to wonder about what drove the young man away.
"I don't understand why he did this," said a man who knows the family.
"Their economic situation is not bad."
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star
on May 05, 2014, on page 9.
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(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News ::
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Received on Mon May 05 2014 - 07:47:38 EDT