Fwd: [sudans-john-ashworth] EU urged to end migrant cooperation with Sudan
2 views
Skip to first unread message
Elisabeth Janaina
Feb 28, 2017, 12:15:50 AM2/28/17
to southsudankob
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "John Ashworth" <ashwor...@gmail.com>
Date: 28 Feb 2017 07:45
Subject: [sudans-john-ashworth] EU urged to end migrant cooperation with Sudan
To: "Group" <sudans-joh...@googlegroups.com>
Cc:
EU urged to end cooperation with Sudan after refugees whipped and deported
MEP calls for inquiry as Ethiopian and Eritrean asylum seekers receive
40 lashes and $800 fines, while activists warn EU migration aid is
emboldening Sudan
Arthur Neslen in Brussels
The Guardian
Monday 27 February 2017 12.07 GMT Last modified on Monday 27 February
201712.09 GMT
The EU is facing calls to rethink its cooperation with Sudan on
migration flows after scores of refugees were whipped, fined, jailed
and deported from Khartoum last weekend following a peaceful protest
over a huge rise in visa processing fees.
About 65 asylum seekers – the majority from Ethiopia and some from
Eritrea – were lashed 40 times on their backs and the back of their
legs with leather whips, lawyers told the Guardian.
The detainees were also handed fines of more than $800 (£645), and 40
were deported immediately, after being arrested in what witnesses say
was a violent police attack on a peaceful protest.
The incident raises concerns about the strength of human rights
conditions attached to more than $100m of migration-related aid
earmarked for Sudan by the European commission.
The MEP Barbara Lochbihler, vice-chair of the European parliament’s
sub-committee on human rights, said the EU should launch an inquiry.
“The EU must voice clear criticism on the recent incidents, conduct a
thorough investigation, try and help the people concerned, and draw
the necessary conclusion: if projects such as Better Migration
Management carry the risk for the EU to become complicit in human
rights abuses, which I believe to be true, we should pull out
immediately.”
Judith Sargentini, an MEP on the European parliament’s development
committee, said she would be asking a question about the issue in
parliament this week.
“Honestly, when we see Ethiopian refugees being harassed, lashed and
thrown out of the country, we have to wonder whether we are not
legitimising the Sudanese behaviour with our funding,” she said.
“The [EU] training for immigration and border management does not seem
to be working very effectively yet,” she added. “I can imagine that
[Sudan’s president Omar] al-Bashir thinks he has more manoeuvring
space because the EU money is coming.”
A human rights worker in Sudan, who asked not to be identified for
security reasons, said the regime’s brutality towards refugees had
worsened in the last year as EU cooperation had increased.
“The crackdown on migrants and refugees has escalated,” the activist
said. “The government feels empowered to do whatever they want. They
think they can get away with human rights violations like this. They
see them as goodwill gestures to the EU to show they are controlling
the flow of migrants.”
The commission has pledged nearly €2bn to countries taking steps to
curb migration to the EU in an emergency trust fund for Africa. Sudan
separatelyreceived €100m of funds last year to improve border security
and address causes of forced displacement.
Sudan is also benefiting from €40m (£34m) set aside under the Khartoum
Process’s Better Migration Management scheme to help restrict refugee
flows in central and east Africa.
These revenues could be used to pay for military and police border
management posts, surveillance systems, transport vehicles,
communications, protective police gear, IT systems, infrastructure and
power supplies.
EU officials deny that any revenues will go to government forces such
as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), border guards on Sudan’s Libyan
frontier linked to the notorious Janjaweed militia.
The RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan, known as Hemedity, last year
demanded that the EU replace vehicles and weapons lost while his force
rounded up 20,000 migrants.
“We are hard at work to aid Europe in containing the flow of migrants,
and if our valuable efforts are not well appreciated, we will open the
desert to migrants,” Hemedity said.
But it was a Khartoum court’s police that whipped and deported the
asylum seekers, not the RSF. Most of those arrested were Oromo people
fleeingethnic and political repression. The court case that followed
also fell short of international standards, according to local
lawyers.
“It was not a fair trial,” claimed Montasir Mohammed, a lawyer for two
of the arrestees. “No legal representatives were allowed to attend the
court, and the men were not given a chance to appeal. The flogging was
administered immediately after the court hearing. No doctors have been
allowed to see them.”
The asylum seekers had been arrested last Friday when police dispersed
a sit-down protest by 300-500 people outside the Ethiopian embassy in
Khartoum. Eyewitnesses say officers attacked protesters with long
wooden batons and tear gas canisters, provoking a dangerous stampede.
One witness, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “People were quietly
sitting down on the pavement when suddenly the police came with big
sticks and started to beat people. Then the military police arrived
and fired teargas.
“People started to run but there was no way to escape except by
jumping over a cemetery wall. Then it collapsed because so many people
were jumping and pushing on it. All the people trying to escape were
badly beaten as they ran, even me. It was painful.”
Use of overseas aid for this kind of political repression is
“explicitly excluded” under criteria agreed by the OECD’s Development
Assistant Committee last year.
The EU says it has not yet given any funds to the Sudanese government
and that monies have been directed through international agencies.
However, a parliamentary delegation to Sudan in December said while EU
stocks might not yet have arrived, it was clear that its funding
projects “will be providing equipment to national police across the
region for border control”.
Sudan is considered a key transit country for migrants to Europe. An
estimated30,000 people travelled through it on the way to Italy (pdf)
in the first 11 months of 2016.
Around 500,000 refugees from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia are
currently thought to be in the country.
Last week, a British parliamentary inquiry warned that in Sudan, “the
European Union’s long-held reputation as a human rights
standard-bearer is in danger of being sacrificed at the altar of
migration”.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/feb/27/eu-urged-to-end-cooperation-with-sudan-after-refugees-whipped-and-deported
END
______________________
John Ashworth
ashwor...@gmail.com
+254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile)
+211 919 695 362 (South Sudan mobile)
+44 787 976 8030 (UK mobile)
+88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone)
Skype: jashworth1
PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya
This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily
reflect the views of any organisation
--
--
The content of this message does not necessarily reflect John Ashworth's views. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, John Ashworth is not the author of the content and the source is always cited.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudan-john-ashworth" group.
To post to this group, send email to sudan-john-ashworth@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sudan-john-ashworth-unsub...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.za/group/sudan-john-ashworth
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudans-john-ashworth" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sudans-john-ashworth+unsub...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/sudans-john-ashworth.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
From: "John Ashworth" <ashwor...@gmail.com>
Date: 28 Feb 2017 07:45
Subject: [sudans-john-ashworth] EU urged to end migrant cooperation with Sudan
To: "Group" <sudans-joh...@googlegroups.com>
Cc:
EU urged to end cooperation with Sudan after refugees whipped and deported
MEP calls for inquiry as Ethiopian and Eritrean asylum seekers receive
40 lashes and $800 fines, while activists warn EU migration aid is
emboldening Sudan
Arthur Neslen in Brussels
The Guardian
Monday 27 February 2017 12.07 GMT Last modified on Monday 27 February
201712.09 GMT
The EU is facing calls to rethink its cooperation with Sudan on
migration flows after scores of refugees were whipped, fined, jailed
and deported from Khartoum last weekend following a peaceful protest
over a huge rise in visa processing fees.
About 65 asylum seekers – the majority from Ethiopia and some from
Eritrea – were lashed 40 times on their backs and the back of their
legs with leather whips, lawyers told the Guardian.
The detainees were also handed fines of more than $800 (£645), and 40
were deported immediately, after being arrested in what witnesses say
was a violent police attack on a peaceful protest.
The incident raises concerns about the strength of human rights
conditions attached to more than $100m of migration-related aid
earmarked for Sudan by the European commission.
The MEP Barbara Lochbihler, vice-chair of the European parliament’s
sub-committee on human rights, said the EU should launch an inquiry.
“The EU must voice clear criticism on the recent incidents, conduct a
thorough investigation, try and help the people concerned, and draw
the necessary conclusion: if projects such as Better Migration
Management carry the risk for the EU to become complicit in human
rights abuses, which I believe to be true, we should pull out
immediately.”
Judith Sargentini, an MEP on the European parliament’s development
committee, said she would be asking a question about the issue in
parliament this week.
“Honestly, when we see Ethiopian refugees being harassed, lashed and
thrown out of the country, we have to wonder whether we are not
legitimising the Sudanese behaviour with our funding,” she said.
“The [EU] training for immigration and border management does not seem
to be working very effectively yet,” she added. “I can imagine that
[Sudan’s president Omar] al-Bashir thinks he has more manoeuvring
space because the EU money is coming.”
A human rights worker in Sudan, who asked not to be identified for
security reasons, said the regime’s brutality towards refugees had
worsened in the last year as EU cooperation had increased.
“The crackdown on migrants and refugees has escalated,” the activist
said. “The government feels empowered to do whatever they want. They
think they can get away with human rights violations like this. They
see them as goodwill gestures to the EU to show they are controlling
the flow of migrants.”
The commission has pledged nearly €2bn to countries taking steps to
curb migration to the EU in an emergency trust fund for Africa. Sudan
separatelyreceived €100m of funds last year to improve border security
and address causes of forced displacement.
Sudan is also benefiting from €40m (£34m) set aside under the Khartoum
Process’s Better Migration Management scheme to help restrict refugee
flows in central and east Africa.
These revenues could be used to pay for military and police border
management posts, surveillance systems, transport vehicles,
communications, protective police gear, IT systems, infrastructure and
power supplies.
EU officials deny that any revenues will go to government forces such
as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), border guards on Sudan’s Libyan
frontier linked to the notorious Janjaweed militia.
The RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan, known as Hemedity, last year
demanded that the EU replace vehicles and weapons lost while his force
rounded up 20,000 migrants.
“We are hard at work to aid Europe in containing the flow of migrants,
and if our valuable efforts are not well appreciated, we will open the
desert to migrants,” Hemedity said.
But it was a Khartoum court’s police that whipped and deported the
asylum seekers, not the RSF. Most of those arrested were Oromo people
fleeingethnic and political repression. The court case that followed
also fell short of international standards, according to local
lawyers.
“It was not a fair trial,” claimed Montasir Mohammed, a lawyer for two
of the arrestees. “No legal representatives were allowed to attend the
court, and the men were not given a chance to appeal. The flogging was
administered immediately after the court hearing. No doctors have been
allowed to see them.”
The asylum seekers had been arrested last Friday when police dispersed
a sit-down protest by 300-500 people outside the Ethiopian embassy in
Khartoum. Eyewitnesses say officers attacked protesters with long
wooden batons and tear gas canisters, provoking a dangerous stampede.
One witness, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “People were quietly
sitting down on the pavement when suddenly the police came with big
sticks and started to beat people. Then the military police arrived
and fired teargas.
“People started to run but there was no way to escape except by
jumping over a cemetery wall. Then it collapsed because so many people
were jumping and pushing on it. All the people trying to escape were
badly beaten as they ran, even me. It was painful.”
Use of overseas aid for this kind of political repression is
“explicitly excluded” under criteria agreed by the OECD’s Development
Assistant Committee last year.
The EU says it has not yet given any funds to the Sudanese government
and that monies have been directed through international agencies.
However, a parliamentary delegation to Sudan in December said while EU
stocks might not yet have arrived, it was clear that its funding
projects “will be providing equipment to national police across the
region for border control”.
Sudan is considered a key transit country for migrants to Europe. An
estimated30,000 people travelled through it on the way to Italy (pdf)
in the first 11 months of 2016.
Around 500,000 refugees from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia are
currently thought to be in the country.
Last week, a British parliamentary inquiry warned that in Sudan, “the
European Union’s long-held reputation as a human rights
standard-bearer is in danger of being sacrificed at the altar of
migration”.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/feb/27/eu-urged-to-end-cooperation-with-sudan-after-refugees-whipped-and-deported
END
______________________
John Ashworth
ashwor...@gmail.com
+254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile)
+211 919 695 362 (South Sudan mobile)
+44 787 976 8030 (UK mobile)
+88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone)
Skype: jashworth1
PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya
This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily
reflect the views of any organisation
--
--
The content of this message does not necessarily reflect John Ashworth's views. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, John Ashworth is not the author of the content and the source is always cited.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudan-john-ashworth" group.
To post to this group, send email to sudan-john-ashworth@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sudan-john-ashworth-unsub...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.za/group/sudan-john-ashworth
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudans-john-ashworth" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sudans-john-ashworth+unsub...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/sudans-john-ashworth.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages