"The Border Agency are playing a game to scare us”

A report and recommendations on Sudanese re-documentation interviews

A Waging Peace Report in collaboration with the Northern Refugee Centre and the South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group September 2011

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If you’ve sought asylum in a distant country, leaving your life behind in search of safety, who are the last people you’d want to meet? Representatives of the government that persecuted you. So why did UK Border Agency want to bring 26 Sudanese asylum seekers from northern England face-to-face with Sudanese Embassy officials on April 16th in Sheffield?

MigrantsRights.org.uk/migration-pulse/2011/border-agency-are-playing-game-scare-us-0

The Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) is perhaps the most powerful wing of the Government of Sudan¹, with no checks on its authority to arrest and detain anyone perceived to be at odds with the incumbent regime.² The NISS primarily targets journalists, political dissidents, human rights defenders, activists and members of ethnic minorities³; in January and February of 2011, it also turned its efforts to student activists. Even those simply of conscription age or in the age-range of the majority of the rebel leadership can be at risk.⁴ The NISS rarely provides a reason or warrant for arrests and often releases people without telling them the charges against them.⁵ It regularly holds prisoners incommunicado, without legal representation or trial.⁶ Even when trials are provided, the accused are often forbidden to speak except to state their names, and are given no interpreter if they do not speak Arabic.⁷ Under the National Security Act of 2010, NISS officers have immunity from prosecution for their actions, including those of torture and rape. Detention and torture are systematic tools of obtaining intelligence in Sudan.

In April 2010 the first multi-party elections since 1986 are due to be held in Sudan. International agencies, including the UN, have heralded the elections as a sign that Bashir and his NCP government are honouring their commitment to free and fair elections required by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, 2005. However, as the fourth most corrupt country in the world (according to Transparency International) nears polling day, there are major concerns over the safety of civilians, the alienation of the Darfuri people and allegations that the opposition party are colluding with the NCP, with international monitors, including the Carter Center, claiming that under current conditions the elections cannot be considered free or fair

In February 2010 three members of the Waging Peace team visited south Sudan, and during our interviews with key political figures, representatives of Sudanese civil society and observers it became apparent that many fear that the entire voting process will not meet the benchmark for free and fair elections due to:

A flawed population census in 2008-9 on which constituencies are based;

• Widespread irregularities during the voter registration process;
• Persistent violence in both Darfur and Southern Sudan;
• Belated and inadequate election preparations;
• Insufficient, inadequate and sporadic civic education;
• A police force that is insufficiently prepared to offer security to voters;
• A crackdown on opposition parties throughout Sudan, and a persisting lack of freedom of speech and assembly without which a genuinely free election campaign is impossible;
• The intimidation of voters during registration which does not auger well for polling day;
• The lack of observers deployed to polling places in insecure and volatile areas, and the ability of polling place officials to arbitrarily ban observers;
• The role local southern politicians are playing in fomenting violence for partisan and personal gain;
• The SPLM's short-sighted tactic of focusing on the 2011 southern secession referendum, while accepting the likelihood of an NCP victory in the north.

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