Africa Monitors

On the 22^nd of May 2018, I visited the Shagarab refugee camp in Sudan which hosts Eritrean refugees. The purpose of the visit was to assess to assess the living conditions of the refugees. I first visited the place where new arrivals have been sheltered to seek for information. Then I met some refugees living in the camp. Aware that refugees would decline to cooperate in providing information regarding their conditions for fear of reprisal [from the Sudanese authorities], I decided to conduct my research informally. I, therefore, approached three boys who appeared to between 14 to 16 years. After introducing my name, I asked for asked for their assistance pretending to be looking for someone from Keren town [a small town in Eritrea). Not very much surprised was I to notice their suspicion, that I used Tigrigna language (their mother tongue), as they thought I was one of the Sudanese people. No sooner had I captured their sense of relief embraced with the feeling of brotherhood, assured that I was one of them. Continue reading “The Staggering flow of underage Eritrean refugees to Sudan” →

On the 15^th of May 2018, Journalist Sally Hayden, in a report on IRIN news, revealed information on the corruption scandal related to the resettlement program of refugees, in the UNHCR office in Khartoum, Sudan.

Sally Hayden mentioned in her report that refugees who pay money and other bribes are given priority in the resettlement program. She has revealed its investigative report after she met refugees living in Khartoum and conducted interviews with them, in addition to the full testimony of others on the issue.

Although refugees were repeatedly complaining about those practices, it became almost clear to all people about the nature of activities of the UNHCR branch office, in Khartoum, after the report of the journalist Hayden, which revealed the scandals of the UNHCR office in Khartoum. After revealing the very embarrassing practices that refugees have been complaining of repeatedly, before the journalist Hayden revealed it lately in her investigative report, the Geneva-based headquarters UNHCR office in Switzerland issued a conclusive decision on the scandal through its official website, after three days of Hayden’s report. In this resolution, the resettlement program of refugees is suspended temporarily. Continue reading “Sudan: Causes and effects of the temporary suspension of UNHCR resettlement program” →