Germany: Sudanese refugees resist
01 September 1995
Nine refugees from Sudan attempted to stop their deportation to Sudan by going on hunger strike on 4 August at Frankfurt airport. The refugee aid organisation "Pro Asyl" described the refugees' fear of inhumane treatment in Sudan as "not unfounded", given that the mere act of applying for asylum in another country is considered as "anti-government activity or high treason" in Sudan. The decision to deport the refugees had been taken immediately on their arrival at Frankfurt airport. Their application for political asylum had been rejected as "obviously unfounded" by immigration authorities in a specially shortened asylum application procedure.
It also became known on 9 August that the Bonn office of the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) had explicitly warned against the deportation of another Sudanese refugee the previous week and had confirmed that systematic torture does take place in Sudan.
An article published in the Tageszeitung on 18 August reported that the former freight terminal being used to house the Sudanese and 90 other refugees waiting for deportation was being heavily guarded by Federal Border Guards with armoured cars. Visiting Green members of Parliament Christa Nickels and Amke Dietert-Scheuer stated that they considered the German government to be acting against all accepted principles of state legal practice and to be in contravention of the United Nations Convention on the Protection of Children.
Meanwhile two of the Sudanese hunger strikers had been allowed to legally enter the Federal Republic, after their immigration application had been reviewed and cleared. Seven of the hunger strikers were transferred to the same Frankfurt hospital only to be sent back to the airport the following day.
Pro Asyl accused the German immigration authorities of being "sloppy" in its investigations into the case. The Foreign Ministry documents on Sudan used to judge the situation were "out of date", with the present situation in Sudan being one of civil war and refugee movements made worse by the "omnipresent" security forces of the Sudanese dictatorship.
The hunger strikers ended their protest over the weekend of 26-27 August and their asylum applications were rejected and they were deported back to Sudan in the evening of 12 September. Around nine o'clock in the evening the refugees were taken by 15 border guards without prior warning to a specially chartered plane which flew them to Khartoum. The deportation to Sudan took place in spite of the fact that church organisations had agreed to buy tickets for the seven to Eritrea where they would have been safe. Both Eritrea and Egypt had declared their willingness to accept the refugees.
Berlin Anti-racist information network, August update.ste.mobi/b.js>
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