Deputy High Commissioner visit to Sudan

Khartoum, 5 August 2010 – UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner, Mr. Alexander Aleinikoff, arrived in Sudan yesterday in a six-day visit.

Today Mr. Aleinikoff held meetings with Sudanese government officials in Khartoum, including state ministers for humanitarian affairs, interior, foreign affairs as well as Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner and Commissioner for Refugees.  The meetings focused on refugee and IDP issues as well as matters of mutual concern.

Mr. Aleinikoff expressed gratitude to the government and people of Sudan for generously hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees and for the close co-operation with UNHCR over decades. He reiterated that UNHCR’s role in Sudan is to support the government, which has the primary obligation to protect and find solutions to refugees, IDPs and returnees as well as to prevent statelessness.  

Speaking on the refugees in Eastern Sudan, the Deputy High Commissioner emphasized the need to break the cycle of dependency that has been created by 40 years of encampment, reliance on food rations and international aid. He called for the engagement of international actors to encourage large scale development in the East.

Speaking on Darfur, Mr. Aleinikoff noted that security and access have seriously curtailed humanitarian activities. “We are deeply concerned about the threats faced by humanitarian workers and the increasing frequency of abductions.”

The Deputy High Commissioner will visit Southern Sudan and Western Darfur.

UNHCR first established its presence in Sudan in 1968. Since then, at varying times, the Office has supported the Government of Sudan to protect and assist a succession of refugee groups from neighbouring countries. Currently there are approximately 200,000 refugees in Sudan from the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and other countries.

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