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(Left) This is how migrants in Sudan are locked between abuse and violence. And Europe closes one eye

Posted by: Semere Asmelash

Date: Wednesday, 25 April 2018

This is how migrants in Sudan are locked between abuse and violence. And Europe closes one eye

MICHELA IACCARINO 25 APRIL 2018

Undocumented immigrants arrested last year by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces. The European Union has made the country a nerve center for an effort to counter human smuggling, but many migration advocates say the moral cost is high. CreditMohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters

Sometimes," Colonel Samih Omar told the New York Times , "it seems to me that this is the southern border of the European Union." Instead it is the hot route to Libya, the port of Africa to reach Europe. It is the land of Sudan, two thousand miles that migrants travel through hoping to reach the Mediterranean and then Europe. It is where Colonel Omar's patrol works to prevent asylum seekers from going to the European shores.

His Rsf Rapid support forces have just arrested 66 migrant arrivals from the North of Darfur, in a joint operation with the NISS, national intelligence and intelligence services: 37 of the fleeing men were Sudanese, 26 were Ethiopians. Sudan is the country of transit especially for those fleeing from Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Between Europe and Sudan «the relationship is opaque for mutual mutual aid: Europeans want the borders closed, the Sudanese want to end years of isolation from the West and the embargo» against the government of al Bashir, accused by the NGOs of violating all possible human rights, the NYT writes again. To stifle migration, Europe would resort to the troops of this dreaded secret police. 
Even Human Rights Watch points out that despite allegations of abuse, the United States and the European Union support the Sudanese government on counter-terrorism and migration control.

All this in some way is the result of the process of Khartoum , arena of international conferences on the theme of migration, held between European and African officials. Among the Africans, there were the Sudanese. The process began in 2014, officially to "improve human rights" in the Horn of Africa. Even if no European fund has been allocated for the government of the country, or arrived directly and officially to stem the departure of asylum seekers, - as happened in Turkey and Libya - 130 million have arrived to agencies and humanitarian organizations in the territory of al Bashir, to finance aid programs for migrants, but also to train officers.

Mohamed Hamdan, a commander of the RSF, said during a ceremony in the capital Karthoum that his soldiers "do the job that the EU should do. That's why they should recognize our efforts, support us because we have lost many men, and a lot of money. Otherwise we will change our mind and stop carrying out this task ". The commander wants "European compensation", that is money, to continue deploying soldiers-guardians on the Libyan border, and to prevent the migrants from reaching the sea. His troops were born of "janjaweed" militias involved in war crimes committed in Darfur during the war, but today they are accused of torturing migrant migrants in transit and are known primarily for their brutality.

The relations between the European and Sudanese bloc evolve, this implies "the rehabilitation of the Sudanese security apparatus, whose leaders are accused by the United Nations of war crimes in Darfur. There is no direct exchange of money ", says Suliman Baldo, author of the report" Border control from Hell ", which talks about the partnership on migration between Europe and Sudan , but" the EU, in practice, legitimizes the abuse of force »of the militias.

These close agreements with one of the countries where human rights are violated every day is "a pact with the devil" and "history teaches that it never goes well". This was said by Mukesh Kapila, former UN coordinator for Sudan at the Guardian. "We have already seen it many times, we must engage with civil society, not go to bed with al Bashir."



(Software translation)




Dr. Fikrejesus Amahazion at the XXIX International Rosa Luxemburg Conference in Berlin on January

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