Under the forgotten cries on the touch of life: refugees and bitter Sudanese reality – something for the fatherland – ✍️ Mr. Salah is strange
On the twentieth June of each year, the “World Refugee Day” is renewed, a world opportunity aimed at highlighting the fate of millions of people who were forced to leave their homes in search of security. It is a day to recall the enormous sacrifices they make and to underline the need for human solidarity with them. However, while international circles sing the slogans of solidarity, reality remains cruel and bitter for many, in particular for Sudanese refugees who are pushed by the scourge of war to neighboring countries and foreign refugees who find themselves trapped in the cycle of conflict inside Sudan.
Sudan was not immune to the scourge of displacement and asylum even before the last war. But the conflict that has taken place since April 2023 exacerbated the crisis in an unprecedented way. Thousands, but millions, among the Sudanese, found themselves overnight, moved in their homeland or their refugees in neighboring countries. Egypt, as a historical and sister, has received most of these refugees. The Egyptians have opened their doors, shared their houses and their livelihoods, but the size of the crisis exceeds the capacity of any individual country to absorb.
Sudanese refugees in Egypt experience a complex reality. On the one hand, they find a relatively sure refuge of war balls and its misfortunes. On the other hand, they face numerous challenges linked to residence, employment possibilities, health care and education. Many of them have lost everything they have, and they depend on justifications, or their arduous efforts to seek a work that guarantees them and their families minimal dignity. Pressure on infrastructure and resources in Egyptian cities that welcome a large number of refugees increases, which requires a more effective international response to support host countries. These are not only figures in statistics, but they are individuals and families who have their stories and their sufferings, by making them deferred dreams and suspended hopes.
On the other side of the equation, Sudan itself lives a unique reality, because its lands welcome a large number of refugees from neighboring countries, such as Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Chad and others. These refugees, who fled conflicts and difficult circumstances in their country, have now found themselves stuck in the heart of a war in which they have neither camel nor camel.
Many foreign refugees played a double role in Sudan before the war. On the one hand, they were part of the social and economic fabric, contributing to various sectors and winning their difficult life. On the other hand, their presence was sometimes an additional challenge to rare resources. With the outbreak of war, their lives turned around. Instead of being safe, they are in direct danger, they are faced with the same threats with which Sudanese citizens are confronted. Some of them have been forced to move again, while others find themselves trapped in conflict zones, while others try to seek a way to return to their country of origin, or to reach a third country, and some of them have cooperated with clearly and strongly rapid support militias.
The history of these foreign refugees in Sudan underlines the fragility of the situation of refugees in general. They are not only victims of circumstances in their country of origin, but they are also vulnerable to the fluctuations of the situation in the countries to which they use. This requires that the international community a global approach not only to provide humanitarian assistance, but also to the protection of their rights, provide them with decent means of subsistence and work on permanent solutions to their conditions.
On the day of World Refugee Day, we must not be satisfied with the words of hollow sympathy. This is an opportunity to move. Call for governments to provide the necessary support for host countries and to provide lasting solutions to refugees. Call international organizations to improve emergency and protection efforts. And a call to members of society to lend a hand to the needy and to express their solidarity with these people who were forced to leave everything they have.
Human dignity is indivisible and the rights of refugees are human rights that cannot be compromised. They are not a burden, but rather witnesses to the size of the tragedies that our world is going through, and a permanent reminder that peace and security are the basis on which a decent life is built for all. Let us work together to make sure that their forgotten cries turn into audible sounds and to find their way to a more optimistic and dignified future.
