http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/sudan-urges-more-support-to-check-human-trafficking-migration-1242529?site=full
Sudan Urges More Support to Check Human Trafficking, Migration
World | Agence France-Presse | Updated: November 12, 2015
A senior Sudanese official today called for more international support to
check human trafficking and migration across Sudan's borders.
(Representational Image)
KHARTOUM: A senior Sudanese official today called for more international
support to check human trafficking and migration across Sudan's borders
towards Europe, as EU and African leaders met in Malta to discuss the
migration crisis.
Many Eritreans and Ethiopians who make the perilous crossing to Europe
across the Mediterranean enter eastern Sudan before travelling on.
"Sudan needs more support to face these challenges, particularly tackling
human trafficking and smuggling", said Hamad Elgizouli, the government
commissioner for refugees.
He spoke to AFP as European leaders met their African counterparts in
Valletta for a two-day conference to decide on joint action on the
migration crisis.
They plan to offer up to 3.6 billion euros ($3.8 billion) in aid in
exchange for help dealing with the migration crisis facing Europe.
Elgizouli said he hoped "Sudan gets a part of this support to tackle this
phenomenon that has become a major concern".
There are 86,500 Eritreans in eastern Sudan, of whom 75,800 live in camps
run by Sudan's Commission of Refugees with support from the United Nations
refugee agency (UNHCR), the UN says.
Conditions in the camps in eastern Sudan have deteriorated in recent years,
Elgizouli said, urging the EU to boost funding to improve conditions for
refugees and asylum seekers in the area to discourage them from travelling
on to Europe.
"Services offered to refugees are not as they were in the past, the
services have been reduced in all fields, particularly nutrition," he said.
Last month, the EU representative in Khartoum also called for greater
cooperation to halt human trafficking, saying the EU has already provided
some 79.5 million euros for development in impoverished eastern Sudan since
2011.
The UNHCR says some 1,100 refugees arrive in eastern Sudan monthly, mostly
Eritreans, estimating that some 80 percent of these intend to make the
onward journey to Europe.
But Elgizouli said the figure was higher, with some 60 to 70 refugees
entering eastern Sudan daily.
Eritreans make up the third-largest number of those making the crossing to
Europe, after Syrians and Afghans.
A report in June from the UN human rights office described widespread
"gross human rights violations" in Eritrea, including mass incarceration of
political opponents, extrajudicial killings and torture.
The Eritrean government dismissed the report.
Story First Published: November 11, 2015 19:48 IST
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