Human trafficking in eastern Sudan raises concerns

Eritrean children at Shagarab camp in eastern Sudan (2010). Photo: UNHCR

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed serious concerns over the rise in incidents of kidnapping and smuggling operations involving Eritreans refugees in eastern Sudan.

Last year alone, the UN agency has monitored 500 cases of disappearance among Eritreans housed by the Shagarab refugee camps in east Sudan.

What makes the issue more complicated is the occasional 'voluntary disappearance', where refugees decide willingly to flee to Egypt, Israel or even to illegally enter Khartoum.

However, available information seems to corroborate that most vanished refugees have in fact been kidnapped, and may be held by criminal gangs for ransom or trafficked for the purpose of forced marriage, sexual exploitation and bonded labor.

“The UNHCR is seeing rising incidents of abductions and disappearances of mainly Eritrean refugees, allegedly involving border tribes, in eastern Sudan. This is occurring in and around refugee camps” Melissa Fleming, spokesperson for UNHCR, said last Friday at a briefing in Geneva.

The UNHCR called for action on both national and international levels to stop forced disappearances from camps.

 “Over the last two years we have seen people disappearing from the Shagarab camps – some of them kidnapped, and others believed paying to be smuggled elsewhere,” Fleming said.

 “UNHCR calls on all national and international actors to step up efforts to counter criminal groups seeking to exploit refugees and asylum-seekers and to reduce the risks of kidnapping, smuggling and trafficking of people,” she added.

Ms. Fleming said the agency’s Sudan office reported 619 people having left the camps over the past two years, with 551 doing so in 2012, aside from unconfirmed cases.

The ratio of voluntary versus forced departures is, however, difficult to ascertain, she warned.

In the latest incidents, four female refugees were reportedly kidnapped from the Shagarab camps, during the late night and early morning of 22 January. Refugees in the camp, which hosts 29,445 people, had also reported the kidnapping of a male refugee the previous week.

Angered by these incidents, some refugees attacked members of one of the local tribes thought to be implicated, and the ensuing violence left several injured among the host population and the refugees. Calm has since been restored. 

Based on numerous reports and individual interviews, Ms. Fleming said she was able to confirm that the main actors responsible for smuggling and human trafficking from eastern Sudan into Egypt, are local tribesmen in eastern Sudan and Sinai, as well as some criminal outfits. 

Fleming said the UNHCR is working the Sudanese authorities, the International Organization for Migration and other humanitarian agencies to reduce the risk of abductions and kidnappings in the area.

“The Government of Sudan has already deployed additional police and we are supporting the authorities to improve overall security, including with the construction and rehabilitation of police stations, provision of vehicles and communication equipment,” she said. 

“The UNHCR is also assisting the refugees in the Shagarab camps with setting up a community-based policing system to reduce security risks,” she added, reporting that the agency is also providing psychological-social counseling to survivors of trafficking, as well as legal aid to those in detention.

UNHCR said that tens of thousands of Eritreans have been living as refugees in eastern Sudan for generations, while every month, some 2,000 asylum-seekers reach the Shagarab camps alone. Some come to escape military conscription, while others are motivated by a possibility of a better life elsewhere, according to the agency.

Meanwhile, many experts on trafficking view the phenomenon from an alarming perspective; calling on relevant authorities to do more to address the problem and secure Sudan from becoming a source-country for human trafficking.

Pointing out that last year, the state of Kassala has announced a full plan and an anti-trafficking act to combat human trafficking, other observers criticize both federal and state authorities for failing to effectively deal with human trafficking in eastern Sudan, while calling on the government to cooperate with relevant international bodies and accelerate efforts in pace with international anti-trafficking standards and to demonstrate strong commitment to combating this scourge through law enforcement.

Others called on the UNHCR to offer logistic support to the Sudanese Interior Ministry for monitoring and securing the eastern borders, saying that allowing such incidents to develop into a pattern would negatively impact the country’s reputation and portray Sudan as an accomplice to human trafficking operations.