Violent unrest in Sudan is rapidly leading to a humanitarian emergency, with hundreds of thousands of people facing food, water and fuel shortages as well as being at direct risk of harm from violent clashes in and around the country’s capital.
Find out more about support and information for people affected by the crisis in Sudan.
We are calling on authorities in the UK to provide safety to people fleeing for their lives, and to play a part in sharing global responsibility to provide protection to people whose lives are at risk.
We ask the UK government to do three things:
- Provide immediate sanctuary (refugee status) to people from Sudan who are currently in the UK’s asylum system and waiting for a decision on their claim. There is no reason for the Home Office to delay these decisions. Sudan is a high refugee recognition country and it is clearly currently not a safe place to be returned to.
- Work with the UN Refugee Agency to proactively apply its existing UK Resettlement Scheme to people in the affected area. There is much learning from the Ukraine, Afghan and Syrian schemes to allow for a rapid delivery of such a scheme.
- Lift (a) unnecessary restrictions on family reunion rules to allow families in the UK with members in Sudan to be swiftly reunited and (b) as they did with Ukraine refugees, divert and front-load resources into accelerating family reunion decisions to get those in the affected area to safety in the UK.
We call on the Scottish government to support us in this and for the Scottish government to provide the resources needed for charities, public law firms and other experts to deliver speedy, effective reunion for families in Scotland with members in Sudan.
The people of Sudan, including our friends and colleagues who are settled here in Scotland and those still desperately waiting for refugee status, are in our thoughts as the violence continues.
