A senior Sudanese official on Wednesday called for more international support to check human trafficking and migration across Sudan’s borders towards Europe, as EU and African leaders met in Malta to discuss the migration crisis.
Many Eritreans and Ethiopians who make the perilous crossing to Europe across the Mediterranean enter eastern Sudan before travelling on.
They plan to offer up to €3.6bn in aid in exchange for help dealing with the migration crisis facing Europe.
Elgizouli said he hoped “Sudan gets a part of this support to tackle this phenomenon that has become a major concern”.
There are 86 500 Eritreans in eastern Sudan, of whom 75 800 live in camps run by Sudan’s Commission of Refugees with support from the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), the UN says.
Conditions in the camps in eastern Sudan have deteriorated in recent years, Elgizouli said, urging the EU to boost funding to improve conditions for refugees and asylum seekers in the area to discourage them from travelling on to Europe.
“Services offered to refugees are not as they were in the past, the services have been reduced in all fields, particularly nutrition,” he said.
