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Syrian refugees seek new route to Europe via Sudan
From Rudaw.net-Erbil
17-02-2017 - STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Syrian refugees are hoping to find a new route to Europe through Sudan after a recent announcement from Sweden’s Ministry of International Development Cooperation that the country will consider processing the Syrian refugees who have been interviewed by its embassy in Sudan. Tens of thousands of Syrians have already fled to Sudan, but most of them have claimed that the hardship they have gone through in Sudan is no less than the ordeal they were subjected to in Syria.
As it is increasingly difficult for Syrians fleeing civil war to seek safety in over-burdened neighbouring countries already hosting millions of refugees, some have taken advantage of visa-free travel to Sudan.
The Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation, Isabella Lövin, recently advised that Syrians in Sudan can submit their immigration and documents and conduct their interviews at the Swedish Embassy in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
Jinan Ramo dreamt of escaping the war in Syria, but she did not expect that the difficulties she would face in Sudan would be even worse. “I spent tens of nights on the streets of Khartoum and in derelict houses.”
Her husband Rolan lives in Sweden now. He is waiting for his wife and two daughters who have now booked their flights to Stockholm.
“Eating leftover food, sleeping in peoples’ courtyards and showering with dirty water are just some of the aspects of our life here. I will never forget these days,” Ramo spoke to Rudaw by phone from Khartoum.
Ramo and her friend Shadia have rented a house together. “We face degrading treatment and assault,” said Shadia. “I would have never accepted this way of life and would have returned home had it not been for the future of my kids.”
“The Swedish government didn’t provide us with any assistance. But they respectfully accepted us,” Ramo added.
Ramo met a Kurd from the Kurdistan Region who helped her with the language barriers.
“The embassy’s guards and employees were very strict with us. Language barriers and not being familiar with the embassy’s procedures were the biggest problems,” she detailed.
Sarchil Khafaf is a Kurd from the Kurdistan Region. He works in Khartoum and has helped out Ramo who said, “He facilitated many things for us. He helped me save the lives of my kids. I consider his assistance voluntary, although I was paying him to help us.”
Khafaf is known as a smuggler for refugees living in Khartoum, but Ramo regards him as an angel.
Khafaf had worked across the Iran-Turkey border and had left for Sweden after he was accused of being a smuggler. He works in Sudan now.
“I speak Arabic and Swedish well. There is nothing wrong with working. It is also a service to refugees,” Khafaf wrote to Rudaw online.
He said that he was charging refugees $300 for interviews and $200 for translation work. “I don’t charge families whose financial conditions are not good. Instead of charging them, I even give them money,” he explained.
Reconnecting with family members is one of the problems refugees face in Europe. “It is the government’s duty to help reconnect family members living apart,” Hans Endirson, a refugee activist said.
The recent decision by the Swedish government to conduct interviews in its embassy in Khartoum is, Endirson said, a good step. But “this involves strict procedures and only immigrants who are accepted as refugees are eligible for the program. Immigrants still living in camps and whose future is still unclear are not eligible for this program.”
The Swedish immigration office estimates nearly 24,000 refugees to enter Sweden via Sudan.
//www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/140220172
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