Senior judges today blocked Home Office plans to send Darfuri asylum seekers back to Sudan. The Court of Appeal said the three asylum seekers could not be sent to Sudan’s capital Khartoum.

In response to a Court of Appeal ruling that people from Darfur should not be forcibly returned to Sudan, Anna Reisenberger, acting Chief Executive of the Refugee Council said:

“This is a welcome judgment. It is scarcely believable that the UK has been removing people from Darfur back to Sudan, a country whose government has been accused – by the United States government no less – of being complicit in genocide perpetrated against the people of Darfur¹.

“There were 675 applications for asylum in the UK from Sudanese nationals last year, compared with the hundreds of thousands of refugees in surrounding countries like Chad. There have been countless reports recently of the deteriorating situation in Darfur. The government should now be concentrating its efforts in this area on preventing the situation getting any worse, and supporting the countries who are shouldering by far the biggest responsibility for protecting these people.”

Ends

Notes to the editor:

1. See Washington post: U.S. Calls Killings In Sudan Genocide

See also:

BBC news: Darfur asylum seekers win appeals