UK and European Union attempts to reduce migration from Sudan risk giving legitimacy to its government, which has been accused of human rights abuses, politicians have warned.
The focus on cutting migration from Sudan “is likely to push the UK towards institutions and individuals with whom we differ on principle”, said a report by MPs and peers (pdf) on the all-party parliamentary group for Sudan and South Sudan.
Mark Durkan, the APPG’s chairman, said official language, which depicts the efforts as humanitarian engagement to tackle the causes of migration, is “a complete dress-up of something that is far more questionable”.
The UK appears to be relaxing its criteria for returning asylum seekers to Sudan, witnesses said. In a recent case, the Home Office argued the potential for “rough handling” of migrants by Sudanese security forces should not prevent people from being returned there.
Meanwhile an EU-wide effort to tackle migration from and through Sudan, in which the UK is a key player, puts the union’s reputation for championing human rights in danger of “being sacrificed at the altar of migration”, the report warns.
Sudan is the fourth-biggest source of asylum seekers in Britain, according to Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, and 47% of the migrants at the Calais camp were from the country, the UK ambassador to Sudan told the APPG.
Sudan has been criticised over allegations of atrocities in Darfur, and the government’s hosting of terrorist groups including a pre-9/11 al-Qaida, as well as repression and repeated allegations of torture against the population. Its president, Omar al-Bashir, is the subject of an arrest warrant from the international criminal court for crimes including genocide.
But as European nations and institutions have stepped up their efforts to prevent migrants and refugees from reaching the Mediterranean, Sudan has started to be brought in from the cold. Last March the UK hosted a two-day dialogue with the Sudanese government, and the report highlights increasing contact between senior officials, including a meeting in which the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, and his counterpart, Ibrahim Ghandour, discussed trade.
The UK has also had “a change in approach from public criticism to private discussions, from the stick to the carrot” over issues of concern such as human rights abuses, the APPG noted.
The UK has argued it must engage more fully with Khartoum to tackle issues such as internal conflict, human rights, and a reduction in the number of economic migrants, but the APPG warns that the process risks “conferring legitimacy” on Sudan’s government.
Witnesses questioned a process that “focuses exclusively on members of Bashir’s government and apparently [rehabilitates] them as key international partners instead of the pariahs they have been”, Durkan said.
The UK is also a leading member of the Khartoum process, an EU migration initiative that is sharply criticised by the APPG. The process, which includes boosting the capacity of border agencies, is “likely to be ineffective in tackling migration and highly damaging to the EU’s reputation as a human rights standard-bearer”, the report said. Internal government documents show British officials warning that human rights abuses will be a “huge and enduring challenge” for the process.
The process is “outsourcing the treatment of refugees to a country that’s a significant source of refugees”, Durkan said, ignoring the role Sudan’s government plays in the economic mismanagement, political repression and years of internal conflict that have forced many to flee.
There are also concerns about whether strengthening Sudan’s border force will further inflate the security sector, which already absorbs 76% of Sudan’s budget, the report said. At least one force involved in border security allegedly has links to the Janjaweed, the militia accused of human rights abuses in Darfur, the report noted, while others have reportedly been complicit in trafficking.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “The UK government engages with the Sudanese government on a wide range of issues, including migration, and this enables us to raise human rights concerns directly. As a source, host and transit country for migration, it is important that we engage both with civil society and the Sudanese government to tackle the conflict and human rights situation, supporting regional cooperation and building technical capacity to stop people trafficking and smuggling.”
Maddy Crowther, of Waging Peace, an NGO campaigning against human rights abuses in Sudan, said: “Fear over the number of asylum seekers reaching us from the Horn of Africa is driving us into the hands of the region’s most brutal dictators.”
Durkan said the closer relations with Sudan sent a negative signal to other nations. “No matter how extreme or vile someone’s conduct or behaviour has been, no matter how questionable their links with various subversive elements have been that have destabilised the region, you end up dealing with them as a matter of necessity,” he said.
