Refugees fleeing Sudan conflict urge UK to 'treat us the same as Ukrainians'
Britain has been accused of discriminating against people fleeing conflict in Sudan in favour of those escaping from Ukraine.
Refugees of Russia’s war can obtain a visa in as little as 48 hours, while Ukrainians in the UK can sponsor a visa for relatives to live with them.
But no such schemes are in place for Sudan, where more than 700 have been killed in five weeks of fighting between rival army factions.
Over 100,000 have fled including Hassam ‘Sam’ Saeed, 29 – stuck in Cairo despite his dad and siblings living in Rotherham, South Yorks.
The fighting in the capital between the Sudanese Army and Rapid Support Forces (AP)He said: “On my worst days I see it as discrimination against people like us who are considered ‘third world’.”
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Sam, a budding photographer, said his father wanted to host him but there is no legal way in.
Now he exists on three meals a week, according to refugee charity the Sanctuary Foundation.
Its founder Dr Krish Kandiah said Sam told him he had seen an interview with a Western politician who urged quick action to help “educated, civilised people” in Ukraine.
“He said, ‘When the conflict happened in Sudan, the UK government took initiative with their people, but not us,’” said Dr Kandiah.
“‘We are civilised people and I’ve spent my whole life learning. Educating myself. Like, literally standing in front of a mirror to practise English so I can get the chance some day to see the UK’.”
The charity is to deliver a petition to Downing Street calling on the Government to open the same sponsorship programmes to Sudanese refugees as for Ukrainians.
Last week Dr Kandiah spoke to refugees who crossed the border to Egypt.
He said: "This week I spoke to dozens of Sudanese refugees in Egypt as they stepped off the bus from Khartoum.
"One family escaped with only the clothes on their backs. Another was traumatized having heard their neighbours scream as bombs dropped on their road.
"Of all the people I met only one, Hussam, wanted to come to the UK. The vast majority wanted to stay as close to Sudan as possible because of their cultural and linguistic ties to the region.
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"Hussam was the exception because he has a father living in the UK.
"We must help the small fraction of refugees whose families are living in our country.
"As a father myself I would do anything I could to help my children live safely with me rather than in a war zone.
"It is so important that we support families separated by war. We are doing that so well for the Ukrainians. There is no good reason to deny that privilege to Sudanese people displaced by war."
The Government said there were no plans for a “bespoke resettlement route” for Sudan and it was focused on working with the UN to end the fighting.
A spokesman added: “Since 2015 we have offered a safe and legal route to the UK to almost half a million people seeking safety. Our approach must be considered in the round, rather than on a crisis-by-crisis basis."
'The least we can do is reunite Sudan people with their UK families', says Dr Krish Kandiah
Where are the 200,000 refugees from Sudan heading? Are they planning to come to the UK in small boats?
Dr Krish Kandiah from the refugee charity Sanctuary Foundation went to an arrivals location outside Aswan, Egypt to find out.
"Karkar is a desperate place. Sitting on the edge of the Sahara, the heat is sweltering, and the landscape desolate.
"The hundreds of people who are arriving here daily from war-torn Sudan are exhausted, impoverished and traumatised.
"Most have been travelling for days, often without food. I see videos on their phones of the devastation left behind.
"I watch as buildings are bombed and hear the screaming voices calling out in the background.It has been one month since fighting broke out in Khartoum. Banks, hospitals and schools are closed.
"Supermarkets are running out of food. Hundreds of people are dying. Those who can afford it are fleeing for their lives.
"Latest UNHCR figures indicate 218,504 people have fled Khartoum. 60,000 have fled to Chad and around 90,000 to Egypt. Around half a million of this latest wave of refugees are children.
"I talk to dozens of families at the arrivals centre. Most have no plans. They have no money, having spent everything they had on the £650 bus fare out of Sudan. Many of them have no luggage, no food, no nappies for their children.
"For these people, there is village three. Village three is one of eight settlements on the edge of the Sahara originally built to house Egyptians displaced during the building of the Aswan Dam. Now it is being repurposed for refugees. It has a mosque, a school and a sparse grocery shop, but little else.
"There are very few opportunities for refugees to earn the £10 a month needed to pay rent on an unfurnished unit. The lucky ones have relatives in Egypt. Some of these connections go way back to long before the Egyptian-Sudanese borders were drawn up.
"But the welcome is moving, as I watch Egyptians embrace their long-lost distant cousins, I ask around if anyone wants to come to the UK? People shake their heads. The UK is too cold, too far away. The alphabet is different. There are not enough mosques. They seem surprised I am even asking.
"I only meet one man who wants to come to the UK. He was 8 years old when he last saw his father, who has been living in England for the past 20 years. He keeps getting rejected when applying for a UK visa. Now in Cairo, barely surviving on three meals a week, he is becoming more and more desperate.
"Scaremongers claim that 100 million refugees are headed to the UK. This is far from the truth. The majority of the 100 million displaced peoples of the world are living close to their homes so they can return as soon as it is safe to do so. They have no intention of coming to the UK.
"Our borders should never be so secure that they separate families or prevent us from acting in compassion to those in need. The least we can do is to offer those Sudanese people with family members in the UK the opportunity to be reunited."
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