The UK fails to establish a safe and legal route for refugees fleeing Sudan

Sudanese refugees face criminalization and deportation from the UK because there are no safe and legal routes for most people fleeing the conflict.

The British government does not plan to establish a tailor-made scheme for the country like those used for Ukraine and Afghanistan, the independent He understands, and he’s only evacuating British citizens and embassy staff.

Nearly 4,000 Sudanese migrants in small boats have crossed the English Channel since 2020, already the eighth largest nationality using the route.

When asked at an event in central London on Tuesday, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick suggested he expected an increase in small Sudanese boat crossings, saying it was “likely, over time, there will be migratory effects.” “of the crisis.

Jenrick insisted that the government “had safe and legal routes, generally,” but maintained his position that “those in danger should seek refuge in the first safe country they reach.”

Conflict has erupted in Khartoum as lawmakers prepare to debate changes to the illegal migration bill, which would see asylum seekers on small boats detained and deported regardless of the merits of their claims.

Conservative MP Tim Loughton, who is tabling an amendment forcing the government to create new safe and legal routes, has repeatedly challenged the government over the lack of alternatives to small boats for African refugees.

He said the independent that the unfolding dilemma for Sudanese asylum seekers was “exactly” the situation he feared.

“That’s why the additional routes that my amendment now announces would help with that,” Loughton said.

In an exchange with Home Secretary Suella Braverman, in parliament’s Home Affairs Committee, she asked what would happen to a “16-year-old orphan from an East African country escaping from a war zone” who wanted to meet with their relatives in the UK.

“What is a safe and legal route for me to come to the UK?” Loughton asked in November. “What scheme is open to me?”

Ms Braverman replied: “If you can make it to the UK, you can apply for asylum.”

The Home Secretary was at a loss to answer when Loughton asked how the hypothetical African teenager could get a visa or board a commercial flight, concluding: “Then he would only enter the UK illegally, right?”

There is no asylum visa for people who want to reach the UK legally, and it is unclear how people could virtually apply for other types of visas and take commercial flights to Britain amid the chaos in Khartoum.

the independent understands that some Sudanese relatives of British citizens have been denied temporary visas and excluded from evacuation flights, including the 87-year-old grandmother of a British doctor.

“The Foreign Office has just contacted my father and told him that they can only evacuate him and his sister, but not my grandmother as she is not a British citizen,” said the doctor who calls herself Dr. A to protect her parents. his family. the independent on Tuesday.

“The UK cannot expect him to evacuate, leaving his 87-year-old mother alone in the middle of the war in Khartoum. The house is located near the fighting at the airport.

“Its inhuman. This is not acceptable. My father will not leave his mother behind, he will not leave ”.

After initially advising people to stay inside unless selected for evacuation, the UK government has now told Britons stuck in the country to arrive at an airfield outside Khartoum to board flights. RAF evacuation as soon as possible.

But Sir Nicholas Kay, the former British ambassador to Sudan, warned that moving was “very difficult.”

He told BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “The security situation can change very quickly… Khartoum’s geography makes it very difficult.

“There are many bridges that need to be crossed to move around the city, and each of them is controlled by one of the armed groups.”

A fragile 72-hour ceasefire between rival military factions fighting for control of Africa’s third-largest country is set to expire on Friday, and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warns of large movements of people within and across countries. neighbors.

On Tuesday, the agency said it expected the fighting to “trigger further displacement” and was expanding camps in neighboring Sudan.

“So far, the most significant cross-border movements in the region have been Sudanese fleeing to Chad and South Sudanese refugees returning to South Sudan,” a UNHCR spokesperson said. “We have also received reports of people starting to arrive in Egypt.”

Sudan also shares a land border with Libya, already a dominant route for people seeking to reach Europe using treacherous boat trips across the Mediterranean Sea.

Many of those who arrive in Italy travel to other European countries, including those who go to France in the hope of crossing the Channel.

The Refugee Council said most people in Sudan “did not have a safe route to the UK” and the government should share responsibility for those fleeing with nations that lack capacity.

Chief Executive Enver Solomon added: “It is wrong for ministers to refer to ‘generous resettlement routes’ that simply do not exist for most people; therefore, Afghans constitute the largest number of people forced to undertake dangerous journeys in small boats.”

A legal change last year made it a criminal offense to enter British waters without permission and people have been jailed for boating, while the government has been stepping up efforts to deport migrants on small boats without considering their claims.

Rishi Sunak has promised that migrants on small boats will be detained and deported under the new migration bill, and thousands of asylum seekers have already been threatened with being transferred to Rwanda because they traveled through safe countries on their way to Great Britain. Brittany.

The Refugee Council said most people in Sudan “did not have a safe route to the UK” and the government should share responsibility for those fleeing with nations that lack capacity.

Chief Executive Enver Solomon added: “It is wrong for ministers to refer to ‘generous resettlement routes’ that simply do not exist for most people; therefore, Afghans constitute the largest number of people forced to undertake dangerous journeys in small boats.”