Foreign Ministry: Flights for Sudanese stuck in Libya

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will arrange flights for Sudanese people who want to return from Libya to Sudan, starting as of today. The decision was made a month after Sudanese people detained in Tripoli started a hunger strike.

Gariballah El Khidir, the ministry’s spokesman, said that the Embassy of Sudan in Tripoli has been involved in field visits to the accommodation centres of the Anti-Illegal Immigration Authority to review the situation of Sudanese people who have been detained in these centres.

He announced that 222 travel documents have been issued for the Sudanese who wish to return home.

His press statement reported that based on the coordination with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Libya Office, the embassy has engaged all its agencies in field visits to the centres of accommodation in Tajoura, El Sicka, Tarigel Matar, as well as Engela, Salaheldin and Ein Zara, among other centres.

Last month, at least 1,500 Sudanese imprisoned in the Tajoura accommodation centre, east of Tripoli, started a hunger strike in protest against their continued detention by the illegal immigration agency without charge or trial.

Radio Dabanga reported at the time that about 400 of the Sudanese prisoners have been incarcerated at Tajoura prison for about a year and two months. Most of them were detained after attempting to make the hazardous crossing to Europe. They complain that they have been beaten, tortured, blackmailed, and ill-treated.

In January, a group of Sudanese nationals were kidnapped and tortured by human trafficking gangs in Libya , and later released from their captors by Libyan authorities. Graphic videos showing Sudanese citizens being tortured in Libya was shown on social networking sites. They were beaten and tortured with fire by their captors who forced them to contact their relatives to provide ransom money in order to avoid being killed.