Refugees battling for_a_better_life

1. Refugees battling for a better life
The first official Eritrean refugees arrived in Sudan in 1968; today, an estimated 1,600
cross the border every month to seek refuge in Shagarab, a large camp in the east of
Sudan.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that northern Sudan has more than
100,000 Eritrean refugees but in 43 years, the profile of the refugees has changed.
"The new arrivals are generally young and well educated; they come from the highlands
and have no cultural or ethnic ties with local populations," said Mohamed Ahmed
Elaghbash, Sudan's Commissioner for Refugees. "Most of them take Sudan as a transit
country. They stay here for some time until they get the opportunity to move northwards.
Sometimes, they try to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa in order to reach
Europe."
In contrast, those who arrived in 1968, escaping the Eritrean war of independence (from
1961 to 1991), made a life in Sudan and some even managed to obtain Sudanese
documents.
Of the Eritrean refugees in Sudan, about 40,000 live with the local community and
belong to the same ethnic group. The Rashaida and Beja, for example, are found on both
sides of the border.
New arrivals
However, the situation for newer Eritrean refugees is different.

2. Gideon Tesfazion told IRIN he fled his country in 2008 and spent a year in the camp
before obtaining his refugee papers.
An opponent of the Eritrean administration, Tesfazion now lives in Khartoum and has
worked a string of poorly paid jobs.
"As a refugee, a lot of jobs are forbidden to us, even in the international organizations
based in Khartoum; we can only work in small private companies as a painter or a
cleaner," he said.
With the independence of Southern Sudan on 9 July, the Khartoum government is
implementing a new citizenship law and Eritrean refugees fear the authorities will be
stricter about their rights. They also fear the population will be tougher on them.
"After July, the situation will be worse and worse for Eritreans," he said. "We look like
them, we act like them. However, Sudanese are scared of us. Then, because we are
refugees, some people in the administration ask us for money with no true reason."
Tesfazion sees the effects of this discrimination on the new Eritrean refugees.
"We see them coming to Khartoum with no legal status; they are moving all the time in
town from one friend’s house to another," he said. "They are trying to cross the border
quickly to reach Europe but you need at least US$5,000 for that."
Smuggling risk
In the 12 camps that flank the border of Eritrea and Sudan, UNHCR has set up
workshops to warn the public about using smugglers.
"We explain to them that it is very dangerous, that they can die during the journey,"
Boray Assadig, one of the lawyers for refugees in Shagarab camp, said. "For example, the

3. boat can drown in the Mediterranean Sea. But it is not easy to convince them because it is
almost impossible for them to get authorization to leave the camp for Khartoum and more
difficult to leave the country."
In partnership with the Sudanese Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR registers each
new arrival using the refugee status determination protocol. Registration is supposed to
make it easier for them to get refugee documents.
Many Eritrean men, for example, are soldiers fleeing military service, which, though
officially limited to 18 months, can extend indefinitely. So the investigators question
them on their unit and the weapons they carried to verify their identity.
Integration
During her visit to Shagarab on 20 June for the International Day of Refugees, Janet Lim,
the operational assistant to the High Commissioner, focused on the integration of
refugees into the local population, the only effective lever, in her opinion, to reduce the
phenomenon of people smuggling and allow refugees a better life.
Lim also promised that UNHCR and various international organizations would install
water pumps and distribute food to the local population on the condition that they allow
new refugees to work and integrate into their communities.
Between toiling in the midst of local communities or moving to Khartoum to risk the
perilous journey East, Mokonen Teolebrhomes, 60, does not know what to do any more.
A political dissident, Teolebrhomes fled his country for the first time for Shagarab in
1981. Thanks to sisters in Japan, he was able to live in exile in Asia for more than 20
years. In 1995, his homesickness led him back to Eritrea.

4. "When I was back in Eritrea, I was still registered as a political activist," he said. So, I
fled again two months ago. And here I am back in Shagarab. I can’t go to Japan again
because my step-brother was my sponsor the first time. Now, he’s retired. He can’t
sponsor me any more. I don’t know what to do. In Japan, it was paradise, here it is hell."
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