Sudanese refugee recounts forced deportation from Jordan

Ahmed Doury and his wife had fled their home in Sudan's Darfur region for safety in Jordan.

But after Jordanian security forces violently rounded up and deported them and other Sudanese asylum seekers, the 32-year-old says he's now more determined than ever to go to Europe.

"I will take the sea... I will get out of here by any means necessary," he said, adding that it was the only thing he could think about on the flight back to Sudan.  

Speaking by telephone from the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, he recounted the deportation with a solemn voice.  

Doury had gone to Jordan in 2014, fleeing death threats for his tribal and ethnic ties in the war-devastated Darfur region.

He registered as a refugee with the United Nations and worked intermittent menial jobs in the Jordanian capital, Amman, to support himself and his wife.   

Feeling discriminated against by authorities, the two joined a makeshift camp outside the UN headquarters where other Sudanese were living. On Wednesday, Jordanian security forces stormed the camp, tore it down and forced the asylum seekers onto vans headed to the airport.  

The camp's proximity to theUN headquarters had given the group a false sense of safety, he explained.   

Everyone was beaten... they stepped on the people who fell down.

"We have no trust in the UN anymore after what happened. No one did anything to help us," Doury said, echoing a view widely held among Sudanese refugees in Jordan.  

"Everyone was beaten... they stepped on the people who fell down," he said.

"The troops marched in early in the morning, swearing and indiscriminately beating its inhabitants with rubber and electric batons," he said.

They fired tear gas and rubber bullets and at one point shoved a pregnant woman to the ground. She fell, broke a leg and went into labor, Doury said.  

Once dispersed, the Sudanese were driven to a holding bay near the country's international airport in vans "so crammed, (they) were barely able to breathe."

Although all the asylum seekers were in metal or plastic handcuffs, Jordanian security continued to beat them at the holding area, and the trauma caused another pregnant woman to go into labour, he said.  

On Friday, they were put onto planes taking them back to Sudan.  

Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani denied the use of force against the refugees.  

UN spokeswoman Aoife McDonnell said they believe the majority of those deported were registered refugees. Exact numbers were not available but the UN  is "concerned about their status and the fear and apprehension that will pervade the remaining community here," she said.  

The agency says majority of some 3,500 Sudanese in Jordan are from the troubled Darfur region where they risk being persecuted.  

The UN had warned Jordan that the deportations violate international laws, but the Jordanian government said Friday that those deported had come under the pretext of seeking medical treatment and that asylum protection did not apply to them.   

Some 120 Sudanese managed to escape the dispersal and are now on the run in Jordan.  

Doury said most of the Sudanese sent back were interrogated for at least two hours upon arrival in Khartoum and allowed to leave, but some have been detained indefinitely.  

Doury said his wife, who is two months pregnant, was beaten in the break-up of the camp and now has pelvic and abdominal pain. "I am worried for the baby," he said, but added that they don't have money to see a doctor. 

Being deported from Jordan may have given him and other asylum seekers the push they needed to brave the seas in search for a better life in Europe.  

"This is indescribably bad situation," he said. "We tried the legal way, so now a lot of people will be trying the illegal way."