Jordan repatriates 800 Sudanese seeking asylum

A Sudanese refugee from Darfur walks past tents during an open-ended sit-in outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the Jordanian capital Amman on December 12, 2015. 800 Sudanese seeking asylum in Jordan were repatriated on December 17,2015 . PHOTO | KHALIL MAZRAAWI | AFP

By  AFP

What you need to know:

  • Jordan on Thursday repatriated 800 Sudanese who had sought asylum in the kingdom.
  • The 800 were all flown back to Sudan after they had applied for refugee status.
  • Human Rights Watch said deporting refugees “violates the customary international law principle of nonrefoulement.

AMMAN

Jordan on Thursday repatriated 800 Sudanese who had sought asylum in the kingdom, Information Minister Mohammed Momani said, adding that they were not refugees but in the country for medical treatment.

Mr Momani said the 800 were all flown back to Sudan after they had applied for refugee status. “The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Amman does not consider them to be refugees,” he added.

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BEING PERSECUTED

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said deporting refugees “violates the customary international law principle of nonrefoulement, which forbids governments from returning people to places where they risk being persecuted, tortured, or exposed to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

For the past several days, dozens of Sudanese held a sit-in in tents they had pitched outside the UNHCR offices in western Amman.

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