Thursday, March 28, 2024

Sudan Tribune

Plural news and views on Sudan

Significance of the Channel Tunnel trek by a Sudanese migrant

By Mahmoud A. Suleiman

The Sudanese citizen Abdel-Rahman Haroun has entered the Guinness World Record Book with merit by trekking the Euro Tunnel with the multitude names. The British call it the English Channel whereas the French names it Le Tunnel Sous La Manche. Nobody surpassed the Sudanese man Haroun in crossing through the Channel Tunnel other than the Dutchman who crossed from the United Kingdom to France a few years ago.

Visual, audio and written global news media reported on the Sudanese citizen who ventured his life crossing the English Channel Tunnel on his way for asylum in Britain to escape the hell of deprivation caused by the arbitrary National Congress Party (NCP) criminal regime. The Islamist fundamentalist entity ruling the African Continent Country Sudan has forced many young people to run across the sea and especially the Mediterranean to Europe to seek a better life for them and for their families who sold all their possessions to provide the cost for a travel of unknown consequences.
The Story of the Sudanese man in the Euro Channel Tunnel went viral globally and with significance.

The Story of Haroun:
NCP regime represents a Dark Chapter in the Sudanese History.

The French authorities announced on the today when the Sudanese Abdel-Rahman Haroun disappeared into the tunnel, 600 illegal immigrants crossed the Eurotunnel on top of lorries slipped in the past two months to their destination in Britain. However, all of them failed, and 9 of them have died so far, including one Sudanese man. The young Sudanese man, was sadly found dead on July 29, 2015, Abdel-Rahman Haroun succeeded in crossing the Channel Tunnel walking “from the bottom, for the first time in history.

The Story of the Sudanese man accused of walking through the English Channel Tunnel cannot be taken in isolation from what is happening to the Sudanese citizens whether inside or outside Sudan. The civilian population of Sudan has been suffering from all kinds of woes under the occupation of the Political Islamism entity, the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist and the corrupt racist gang for more than a quarter century. The era of the genocidal regime of the National Congress Party (NCP) has subjected the Sudanese people to all kinds of oppression, humiliation, killing, displacement and migration to the middle of nowhere. The (NCP) regime reigned with terror and committing atrocities for the survival of their boss, indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the fugitive from international justice Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, to remain in power empowering and enable the Influential members of the ruling regime.

After the military coup of June 30, 1989 by the Islamists in Sudan and despite religious slogans filed by the ruling regime of the NCP and before it the National Islamic Front (NIF), the policies of privatization and withdrawal of support for essential goods and services, adopted led to the impoverishment of the majority of the Sudanese people. The poverty level among the population reached the rate of 94%. The foregoing situation.

The (NCP) putschists’ regime through its monopoly of power for Twenty-Six lean years since its fateful arrival converted Sudan into a failed state. This Islamist regime, which called itself (Ingaz – Arabic salvation or rescue) failed in all aspects of governance (intellectually, politically, economically, morally, militarily and internationally). The regime transferred all its frustrations and wrath emanated from the failures against Sudanese citizens. It took the form of intimidation, killings, civil wars of attrition, human rights violations, impoverishment, displacement, forced migration and deprivation of civil service jobs and racism and nepotism and looting of oil money and gold revenues, which forced the young people adventure with their lives riding the sea to Europe and other destinations. Therefore, the first step to reform the state in Sudan is the departure of ruling regime of the NCP. Usurping the rights of the Sudanese people to exercise their democratic rights in choosing the government representative for all the citizens based on contemporary democratic state becoming a priority.

The foregoing to happen requires the unhindered support of the international community. Unfortunately, both the international and regional community remained divided over the Sudanese issues and operating according to the intersection of interests with the ruling regime of the NCP. This happens in spite of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing arrest warrant against the genocidal criminal Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir since 2009.

It is noteworthy and saddening that another Sudanese man aged between 25 and 30 had died trying to reach Britain and was hit by a truck that was leaving a cross-Channel ferry, the police source told Agence-France Presse on Wednesday 29 JULY 2015 morning. A spokesperson for Eurotunnel added, “Our team found a corpse this morning and the firefighters have confirmed the death of this person.”

The Sudanese citizen Abdel-Rahman Haroun, 40 years old, is due to appear at Canterbury Crown Court on 24 August 2015 to face the obstruction charge, which comes under the Malicious Damage Act 1861. He is to face the charges of causing an obstruction to an engine or carriage using the railway and remanded in custody by Medway magistrates. Haroun remains in custody until the date of his appearance i in court on August 24, 2015.

The process for claiming asylum in the UK can be a long and complex. It is understood that the UK government aims to process asylum claims within six months, but they can take years. Those individuals like Abdel-Rahman Haroun who are caught are at first arrested on immigration offences and at the same time an application for those seeking asylum is made by immigration officers who submit it on their behalf. Moreover, applications are meant to be made immediately, otherwise the Home Office may view a late claim as an attempt to avoid being deported, the UK government stated.

The home secretary, Theresa May, has said that Britain will not participate in a proposed mandatory EU programme to resettle migrants rescued trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, indicating that some should be forcibly returned. In spite of that, we call on the Kent authorities to be merciful to Abdel-Rahman Haroun by offering him the chance of entering the United Kingdom for seeking asylum irrespective of what he has done in breach of the laws. The Home Office is reported to have written saying that she disagreed with the suggestion by the High Representative of EU, Federica Mogherini that no migrants intercepted at sea should be sent back against their will.

People stranded such as Abdel-Rahman Haroun making the perilous journeys to Europe and became in the situation of no return to Sudan under the rule of the National Congress Party regime, are in dire need for clemency.

Although one is not in a position to determine the legitimacy of Abdul Rahman Harun stay in the United Kingdom, but we petition on his behalf to be allowed to seek asylum in the United Kingdom. Khartoum is a nogo area for Haroun, he ultimately face persecution the time he steps out of vehicle carried him back to Sudan.

I conclude by quoting the following scholarly statements”…in the midst of migrants in search of a better life there are people in need of protection: refugees and asylum-seekers, women and children victims of trafficking.

Julien Clerc, the French singer and songwriter and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassadors is reported as saying* “Despite very harsh living conditions and the trauma of what they went through, they [Sudanese refugees] had a lot of dignity”. http://www.unhcr.org/40488d537.html UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Julien Clerc with Sudanese refugee children at Touloum transit centre in eastern Chad.

Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and a blogger. His blog is http://thussudan.wordpress.com/

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