News from Eritrean Refugees in Sudan indicates an organized campaign by local security personnel to arrest, imprison, and extract money from desperate and impoverished Eritrean refugees.
Evidence is continuing to be received that, since mid-February 2022, police and soldiers have been rounding up Eritrean refugees in Sudan from the street, their workplaces and their homes and taking them to prisons.
The police/soldiers are reported to have been checking the refugees’ residence permits. If the permit is found to have expired, then refugees are asked to pay a fine of between 200,000 – 400,000 Sudanese pounds. Those who cannot pay the fine continue to be detained. It is not clear whether the fines paid ever reach the official accounts of the state or whether the police corruptly retain these monies for their own purposes. Human rights activists say the Sudanese police regard the Eritreans as a source of income. But, for the impoverished and desperate Eritrean refugee community, the strain of collecting and paying these fines is unbearable.
It is important to note that the Sudanese Immigration office that renews and issues documents for refugees has been closed for over a year, and therefore Eritrean refugees have no other way of renewing their residence permits.
Human Rights Concern Eritrea calls on the Sudanese authorities: –
- to re-open at once the immigration office that renews refugee residence permits;
- to release all refugees from detention and renew their documents immediately;
- to remit the fines imposed on refugees who have had no legitimate way to renew their documentation.
Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE)
