Sudan should grant refugee status to tens of thousands of mostly Arab Chadians who have fled into Darfur to escape violence in their country, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.
But the UN urged Sudan to clarify land issues so Chadians do not settle on property abandoned by Darfuris who have themselves fled conflict for shelter in refugee camps.
In the volatile border region of eastern Chad and western Sudan, where looting, rape and murder have dispersed hundreds of thousands of people, refugee agencies are struggling to find a balance in settling the shifting populations.
In Darfur, at least 200 000 people are estimated to have died and more than two million chased from their homes since a revolt erupted in 2003.
Eastern Chad has about 230 000 Sudanese refugees and more than 170 000 Chadians have been displaced as a consequence of the Sudan conflict, which has added to insecurity from a domestic rebellion and created hardship across both borders.
Scarce water in Chad and ongoing fighting between government and opposition forces have caused many people to cross into the Darfur, said Jennifer Pagonis, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
”Given these conditions, we strongly believe that should this group of Chadians return home, their safety could be at stake. We therefore recommend that they be recognised as refugees” in Sudan, she said, while stressing that active or former combatants from Chad should not be given refugee status.
Refugee status affords a person the same rights and basic state assistance given to any other foreigner who is a legal resident. Under international law, refugees are also protected from being deported back to a territory where they face danger.
As many as 30 000 people, mainly nomadic or semi-nomadic Arab tribes, have left Chad for Darfur since early this year.
The movement of Chadians into Darfur has raised concerns among Sudanese government critics that officials may try to engineer the ethnic mix in Darfur, where non-Arab rebels rose up against the government in 2003, charging Khartoum with neglect.
The Sudanese government dispatched mostly Arab militias to put down the revolt and some fighters, feared locally as Janjaweed, have been accused of atrocities against civilians, which the United States has called genocide.
Pagonis said some Chadian families have been directed by local Sudanese leaders to occupy empty land belonging to Darfuris who fled violence for displacement camps in Sudan, or in refugee camps in eastern Chad.
She said the Sudanese government ought to clarify land-ownership issues to ensure that the displaced from Darfur are able to return to their villages of origin when they feel it is secure to do so.
The UNHCR said most of the newly arrived Chadians did not appear to need urgent food or other aid, but urged Sudan to launch a vaccination campaign for children and to give food rations for the most vulnerable among the group. — Reuters