A new cool blog by a Southern Sudanese named Sudanese Returnee has sprung up. She (he?) has written an interesting post that you should check out:
Technically speaking, Sudan is in a state of war with Israel! Sudanese passports are stamped “all countries except Israel” and they risk execution if the government learns that they have visited Israel in one form or another.
In the mid 90’s two southern Sudanese were executed after Israel deported them from Israel through Jordon.
Continue reading here. If Israelis want to screw up big time, they might as well start deporting Sudanese refugees.
On another note, it’s nice to see the Sudanese blogosphere growing and becoming more active. The following are 2 new Sudanese blogs I discovered today.
1- Konyokonyo Clinic
2- Muhanned: Life in Sudan
For a complete list of Sudanese bloggers, check the side bar.
SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
I thought the “all countries except Israel” is stamped in most of the Islamic/Arabian countries..
Thank you for sharing more links of Sudanese bloggers.
Well, it’s good to see that the Arab countries recognise Israel as a place that exists.
It’s also fantastic that they feel they have a reason to stamp their passports “all countries except Israel”. That means that they expect that people would want to go there.
As for Sudanese refugees, I think the EU should help and accept them. Ireland needs cheap labour and as Drima said, sending them back is NOT an option.
If Israelis want to screw up big time, they might as well start deporting Sudanese refugees.
I cannot accept this, Drima. Israel is not responsible for Sudanese policy. The logical extension of your argument is that since any Sudanese citizen who even sets foot in Israel, whether or not a refugee before doing so, immediately becomes a criminal in Sudan and liable to the death penalty, Israel must therefore accept every Sudanese who enters, and can never deport them. This, despite the fact that prior to entering Israel, they may not have been refugees at all in the true sense of the word, and despite the fact that no country in the world always gives political asylum to every refugee who tries to enter - nor is any country expected to. If a Sudanese citizen is deported from Israel to Jordan, and the Jordanians deport him back to Sudan, why isn’t Jordan at fault? More to the point, why isn’t Sudan, with its death penalty, at fault? And how can Israel be expected to cope with this Catch-22 situation?
If Israel decides to accept Sudanese refugees - true refugees - into its territory, it does so ex gratia and not because it is obliged to do so. While we recognize and sympathize with the plight of these refugees, we cannot be held accountable for the criminal actions of the Sudanese government - with which we do not have relations - nor of the negligent acts of those governments with which we do have relations.
I reject the attempt to blame Israel for the plight of the Sudanese refugees. We’ll do what we can (and we are), but the fate of the Sudanese people ultimately lies in the hands of the Sudanese government. That government, and its criminal policies, are what need to be changed.
I tend to agree with NC, Drima.
“If Israel decides to accept Sudanese refugees - true refugees - into its territory, it does so ex gratia and not because it is obliged to do so.”
Exactly and I never said that shouldn’t be the first reason. But the second reason which is also strong is because if deported, they WILL get screwed big time and will most probably be put to death. This is what we can expect to happen to refugees from Darfur. As for Southern Sudanese refugees, I think things are now different. Previously the SPLM and NIF were at war. Now the SPLM has leverage and I don’t think they’ll sit down and happily watch Southern Sudanese getting executed.
I know this is a tough situation for Israel. It indeed is a dilemma but rest assured that if the Sudanese refugees already in Israel get deported, it will be a big mistake.
Like Andrew said, “sending them back is NOT an option.”
Exactly. Securing the border with Egypt more effectively is.
Last not but least,
“we cannot be held accountable for the criminal actions of the Sudanese government”
How dare you insult my government? It’s the best we’ve ever had.
How dare you insult my government? It’s the best we’ve ever had.
You know the funny part? That may very well be the case…
In any case, no one is seriously talking about deporting the Darfurian refugees in the government. I see the exact opposite discussion, along with mentions of closing the Egyptian/Israeli border. Hopefully this will actually be the case.
By the way, I tried posting on the Sudan Returnee blog, but I seem to have failed. I posted my comment twice, even got that “duplicate comment” message I know and so love when posting on Worldpress, but the comment hasn’t appeared yet. Do you happen to know if he has comment moderation?
I just wanted to add one more thing. If Israel deports them to Jordan and Jordan then deports them to Sudan, Jordan will be at fault too. However I place the responsibility for future consequences mainly on Israel because that’s where the first step would be taken.
As Andrew mentioned, the EU could help. For now, the border MUST be secured properly. Otherwise more refugees will be encouraged to cross over.
thnx Drima. The Sudanese Returnee is a ‘he’.
@Roman, you comment got filtered by ‘Akismet’ as spam. It’s on now..
However I place the responsibility for future consequences mainly on Israel because that’s where the first step would be taken.
Nope, the first step is taken in Egypt.
And in fact, the step before that is taken in Sudan.
I didn’t expect you to attempt to shift the blame for Sudanese policies of execution to Israel - this time, it’s really not our fault.
NC, I’m referring to the act of deportation for Sudanese refugees in Israel. They’re already there. That’s the reality and we need to deal with it in a proper manner.
As for future potential refugees arriving, Sudan followed by Egypt is where the blame should be placed, not Israel.
Heh, figures. I post a long and thoughtful reply and it gets intercepted as spam. Story of my life. Thanks for letting me know it’s up now, sudanesereturnee.
Drima, there are no plans to deport anyone considered a refugee. Israel is well aware of what that would mean for them.
Exactly and I never said that shouldn’t be the first reason. But the second reason which is also strong is because if deported, they WILL get screwed big time and will most probably be put to death.
basically it’s none of our problems … BUT !!! the understanding with egypt is that these people won’t be sent back to sudan .. now can we please deport them back to egypt, drima ??? pleassssssssse
Another intelligent analysis by the best government you’ve ever had: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3431281,00.html
Seems we can’t win, can we …
By the way, I can’t get to individual posts by clicking on the comments link from your main page. Is this just me, or is it a bug?
@Roman Kalik,
Not my invention that your piece turned up as spam. It’s still long and thoughtful as you intended…
What ever Israel tries to do now, it does not eleminate that fact that 2 refugees were once deported from Israel and executed by the islamist! Who knows why israel will cooperate now, maybe pure PR, maybe they really care…maybe Israel does not have a way to deport them anywere even if they wanted to!
Whatever the reason, refugees are refugees are refugees! They don’t have much to do with the political bullshit politician create, they just want to breathe the air where ever they are!
So please, israel or Sudan, do what you wanna, the sun will continue to shine and tomorrow the headlines will be something else, but we the refugees are here to stay
Hey, I don’t blame you for my reply being marked as spam, man. I just meant that it’s one of those somewhat amusing quirks of fate that make up my life.
And yes, it’s a damn shame about the two Sudanese who were executed, it shouldn’t have happened.
This is not a matter of PR for us though, because we suck big time at PR. Even were we to turn this into a “look how nice we are” charade, we’d fail. Guaranteed.
And we could have deported the Darfurians to Egypt, had we been inclined to do that.
NC, that’s one lovely link you just provided. I’m going to write a post about it later.
And ya, I do think there’s a new annoying bug. I’ll try to settle it later. Grrrrr…
Gotta go to my classes now. Later!
I don’t give a shit who you put responsibility on.
If there is a good chance these guys will be killed…then Israel needs to take care of them unless some security check indicates they are Queada or something…
Ultimately…they could be absorbed by other countries…
Yes is it is complex and yes there could be waves and Israel can look like my area…Southern Calif. except we get Mexicans, Chinese, Central Americans, Arabs, Iranians and Israelis…
But if Sudan is going to kill these guys…and all checks demonstrate they are innocents…they put up some tents in Dimona or whatever you have to do…but you protect their lives…period.
Leave a Comment