In mid-July several hundred Ethiopian and Eritrean adults and children were
arrested in the capital, Khartoum. At least 14 Ethiopian nationals, whose names
are known to Amnesty International, had been arrested on 5 July in Khartoum and
in the east of Sudan. Arrests are continuing.
Many of those detained are understood to be asylum-seekers or recognised
refugees. Some are in Omdurman prison in Khartoum, but the whereabouts of most
is not yet known, or has not been disclosed by the authorities. Some have been
taken to court, charged with illegal entry and summarily sentenced to
imprisonment or immediate deportation as illegal migrants. It is understood
that no-one has access to them in custody.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Sudan is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR), the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967
Protocol, and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Convention Governing the
Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, all of which oblige the
authorities not to forcibly return any person to a country where they risk
torture or other serious human rights violations.
The government has generally abided by these treaties and worked closely with
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to protect the rights of both
long-term refugees and new refugees from Ethiopia and Eritrea. However, this
policy appears to have changed recently because of the government’s changed
political relations with both the Ethiopian and the Eritrean governments. For
many years Sudan had hosted and supported political opponents of both
governments, some of them belonging to armed groups. The recent detentions of
Ethiopians came immediately after the Ethiopian foreign minister visited Sudan
in June 2007, indicating new friendlier relations with Ethiopia. A similar
change appears to have been made in the Sudan government’s political relations
with Eritrea.
Many of the detainees have been living in Sudan as refugees since the late
1970s, having fled from the Dergue government that was in power in Ethiopia at
the time. Some were unwilling to return when the Dergue government was
overthrown in 1991, and the current government of Meles Zenawi seized power in
Ethiopia and Eritrea gaining independence under the Eritrean People’s
Liberation Front (EPLF). Some of the detainees are said to be opponents of the
government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia or President Issayas
Afewerki in Eritrea, who arrived in Sudan in the 1990s or more recently to seek
asylum. Thousands of Eritreans fled to Sudan in recent years to escape
political repression or military conscription.
