• Text size Normal size text | Increase text size by 10% | Increase text size by 20% | Increase text size by 30%
  • Also available in French

Egypt allows more time for UNHCR to interview detained Sudanese

News Stories, 17 January 2006

© UNHCR Cairo
UNHCR staff preparing bags with clothes and toiletries for the Sudanese held in detention following the tragic confrontation in a Cairo park last month.

CAIRO, Jan. 17 (UNHCR) – UNHCR has received assurances from Egyptian authorities that hundreds of Sudanese still detained following a tragic confrontation in a Cairo park last month will not be deported while the agency continues individual assessments of each of them.

Following a meeting Monday between Egyptian authorities and senior UNHCR officials from Cairo and Geneva, the refugee agency received positive indications that additional time will be given to UNHCR staff to finalise the legal process and assess all of the detained cases properly. Monday was to have been the deadline for completing the process for 462 Sudanese remaining in three detention facilities.

A UNHCR spokeswoman in Cairo, Astrid van Genderen Stort, said the agency's legal team would now continue its work over the coming weeks in the three prisons.

"UNHCR briefed the authorities on progress made over the past week in assessing these individuals, and emphasized that we would need additional time for a proper, in-depth legal analysis of the status of remaining Sudanese in prison," van Genderen Stort said.

"UNHCR teams worked day and night over the past week, but given the number of Sudanese in detention, our teams were able to conduct interviews averaging only 30-40 minutes each. This is not enough to do a thorough status-determination."

Meanwhile, she said, UNHCR has asked that no one be deported at this point, citing humanitarian grounds. UNHCR again underscored the immediate need to release all women and children from prison, as well as all Sudanese from the conflict-ridden Darfur region of Sudan.

"We understand that Egyptian authorities continue to investigate the December incident in Cairo, and we support the need for that," van Genderen Stort said. "In this context, UNHCR also reiterated its support to due process under Egyptian law for these Sudanese, and we will continue to provide legal aid to any persons who might be charged."

The refugee agency is also continuing its tracing efforts to reunite separated families. Last Thursday, a 7-year-old girl who had been alone in one of the detention facilities was released and reunited with her mother, whom UNHCR had traced.

Meanwhile, UNHCR's office in Cairo has resumed the registration and renewal of identification cards for Sudanese and other refugees who could not be helped during the three-month sit-in demonstration in the square near the UNHCR office.

The agency has also provided assistance to hundreds of Sudanese who had participated in the three-month Cairo demonstration, but who had earlier been released from detention by Egyptian authorities after being identified by UNHCR.

• DONATE NOW • • GET INVOLVED • • STAY INFORMED •

 

Related Stories

more documents

UNHCR country pages

Protection considerations with regard to people fleeing from Libya. Update No.1

Battling the Elements in Chad

More than 180,000 Sudanese refugees have fled violence in Sudan's Darfur region, crossing the border to the remote desert of eastern Chad.

It is one of the most inhospitable environments UNHCR has ever had to work in. Vast distances, extremely poor road conditions, scorching daytime temperatures, sandstorms, the scarcity of vegetation and firewood, and severe shortages of drinkable water have been major challenges since the beginning of the operation. Now, heavy seasonal rains are falling, cutting off the few usable roads, flooding areas where refugees had set up makeshift shelters, and delaying the delivery of relief supplies.

Despite the enormous environmental challenges, UNHCR has so far managed to establish nine camps and relocate the vast majority of the refugees who are willing to move from the volatile border.

Battling the Elements in Chad

Southerners on the move before Sudanese vote

Ahead of South Sudan's landmark January 9, 2011 referendum on independence, tens of thousands of southern Sudanese in the North packed their belongings and made the long trek south. UNHCR set up way stations at key points along the route to provide food and shelter to the travellers during their arduous journey. Several reports of rapes and attacks on travellers reinforced the need for these reception centres, where women, children and people living with disabilities can spend the night. UNHCR has made contingency plans in the event of mass displacement after the vote, including the stockpiling of shelter and basic provisions for up to 50,000 people.

Southerners on the move before Sudanese vote

Chad: Relocation from the Border to Refugee Camps

Since fighting broke out in Sudan's western region of Darfur last year, more than 110,000 Sudanese refugees have fled into Chad. They are scattered along a 600-km stretch of desert borderland under a scorching sun during the day and freezing temperatures during the night.

Access to these refugees in this inhospitable region is difficult. Staff of the UN refugee agency drive for days to locate them. Bombing in the border zone and cross-border raids by militia from Sudan put the refugees at risk and underscore the urgent need to move them to camps in the interior. In addition, the approach of the rainy season in May will make the sandy roads impassable. Aid workers are racing against time in an attempt bring emergency relief to these refugees.

Chad: Relocation from the Border to Refugee Camps

Sudan: A Perilous RoutePlay video

Sudan: A Perilous Route

Kassala camp in eastern Sudan provides shelter to thousands of refugees from Eritrea. Many of them pass through the hands of ruthless and dangerous smugglers.
Sudan: Heading for a New HomePlay video

Sudan: Heading for a New Home

UNHCR is offering to help move hundreds of people from Sudan to newly independent South Sudan, where they will build new lives. Almost 250 families with ties to the south are waiting for a ride.
South Sudan: Blue Nile RefugeesPlay video

South Sudan: Blue Nile Refugees

Refugees are streaming in from Sudan's Blue Nile Region into South Sudan, many to Doro Camp.