Jordan deports 800 Sudanese asylum seekers

Jordan deports 800 Sudanese asylum seekers
Sudanese asylum-seekers camped outside the UN refugee agency headquarters have been rounded up by Jordanian troops Wednesday morning and sent back to Sudan where they fear persecution.
2 min read
16 December, 2015
The Sudanese refugees will be deported back to their home country [AFP]

Jordan has deported 800 Sudanese asylum seekers back to their home country after rejected their claims for asylum.

The group included men, women and children who were rounded up during an early morning raid on their protest camp in Amman.

They were then transferred to the airport with some having their hands bound with cables, according to social media sources.

The group had been camping outside the UN refugee agency headquarters in Amman in a bid to get asylum in Jordan.

They claimed to be from fleeing war and persecution in Sudan's troubled Darfur region and unable to return home.

Amman refused to acquiesce, and launched a dawn raid on Wednesday, tearing down tents. 


Jordan insists that the Sudanese asylum-seekers entered the kingdom illegally and falsely claimed they came for medical treatment.

Information Minister Mohammed Momani said "asylum conditions don't apply to them".

Ahmed Douri, one of the displaced, told AFP that soldiers forced the camp's residents onto a bus to the airport.

The UN refugee agency had so far refused to comment on the situation.

Jordan is hosting around 700,000 Syrian refugees and hosted hundreds of thousands of Iraqi following the violence that erupted after the 2003 US-led invasion of the country.

Refugees and human rights groups have complained of discrimination by the government.