FRUSTRATION MOUNTS AS SUDANESE DEMONSTRATIONS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 008110

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

FROM REGIONAL REFUGEE COORDINATOR
DEPT FOR PRM/A, PRM/AFR, PRM/ANE, PRM/MCE, NEA/ELA AND AF
ROME FOR DHS/CIS
GENEVA FOR RMA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREF PHUM PREL ASEC EG SU UNHCR
SUBJECT: FRUSTRATION MOUNTS AS SUDANESE DEMONSTRATIONS
CONTINUE IN CAIRO

Reference: Cairo 07766

Sensitive but unclassified; Please protect accordingly


1. (SBU) The continuing demonstration by southern Sudanese
migrants camped out in a central city park is not a refugee
problem but rather a broader humanitarian issue, according
to UNHCR Cairo. The demonstration has forced the closure of
UNHCR's Cairo office, which adjoins the makeshift camp set-
up by the Sudanese (reftel). UNHCR's deputy representative,
Damtew Dessalegne, briefed RefCoord on the status of the
demonstration this week.


2. (SBU) Most of the Sudanese demonstrators are not
recognized refugees, says Dessalegne. The majority arrived
5-10 years ago with no intention of staying in Egypt. But
they failed in their bid to gain refugee status and to
achieve their principal goal of third-country resettlement
and have remained in Cairo over the years clinging to the
hope that things would somehow change and third-country
resettlement would become a reality. They have survived
with the protection of UNHCR's "Yellow Card", issued to
registered, but not recognized, asylum seekers and does not
permit employment (unlike the "Blue Card" issued to
recognized refugees).


3. (SBU) Unlike Blue Card holders (recognized refugees) most
of the demonstrators receive no government or UNHCR
assistance and survive on illegal employment (if they can
find it) and handouts from a few largely overwhelmed
churches and charitable organizations. According to UNHCR,
there are around 20,000 Sudanese in this situation in Cairo
and they see their hopes of moving on fading now that UNHCR
has stopped doing refugee status determinations (RSDs),as
resettlement opportunities evaporate, and as peace continues
to take hold in the south. They are facing what must seem
to them, the bleak prospect of returning to their shattered
homeland as the only alternative to a continuing hand-to-
mouth existence in Cairo.


4. (SBU) According to Dessalegne, the number of
demonstrators in the park fluctuates daily between 400-
1,200. At midweek there were around 6-700. There has been
no violence (although one of the demonstrators died of
natural causes in his home in Maadi). UNHCR says the
demonstrators were encouraged to come to the park in the
mistaken believe that they would be able to exchange their
Yellow Cards for Blue Cards and that UNHCR would reopen
their files offering the possibility of third country
resettlement. UNHCR believes that once the reality that
none of this will happen sinks in, the numbers will dwindle
and the demonstrators will have dispersed by the end of
Ramadan (early November).


5. (SBU) Dessalegne points out that this is no longer a
"refugee" problem within the meaning of UNHCR's mandate.
The Sudanese are technically free to return home, but few
want to. UNHCR says that some demonstrators are new
arrivals who continue to come to Egypt on one-month tourist
visas looking for resettlement. Sudanese overstayers are
not deported when they fall out of status and routinely turn
to UNHCR hoping it can regularize their situation in Egypt
and provide access to Australia, Canada or the U.S.


6. (SBU) The demonstrators have given UNHCR a long list of
demands, most of which are beyond UNHCR's ability to satisfy
(e.g., they want all Sudanese arrivals to be recognized as
refugees regardless of what part of the country they come
from or their individual circumstances; they want UNHCR to
`fast-track' refugee status determinations and
resettlement). UNHCR has been through the list point-by-
point with the demonstrators pointing out the limitations on
its ability to meet their expectations. UNHCR has also
urged them to form working groups to focus on individual
concerns and offered advice on how some of these concerns
can be addressed. But the demonstrators have refused to
budge, demanding that UNHCR solve their problems.


7. (SBU) UNHCR has also met twice with the Egyptian Foreign
Ministry urging the GOE to accept some responsibility for
the welfare of the Sudanese demonstrators. UNHCR apparently
pointed out that since it began operations in Cairo in 1994
UNHCR has received 60,000 Sudanese refugee applications;
50,000 have been processed; 32,000 recognized; and 17,000
have been resettled. If the GOE accepted some
responsibility for those remaining in Cairo, this would be a
good example of burden sharing - 50/50 between Egypt and
UNHCR/resettlement countries. But UNHCR left these meetings
unconvinced that the GOE was disposed to assist the Sudanese
and was instead content to let the present situation drift
and hopefully, eventually, to solve itself.


8. (SBU) UNHCR is growing increasingly frustrated that it is
seen by the refugee community, and by the media, as the main
obstacle to better conditions and third-country resettlement
for the Sudanese in Cairo. It notes that since the number
of Sudanese in Cairo qualifying for refugee status under UN
mandate has virtually dried up, the plight of the Sudanese
is no longer a refugee issue and UNHCR is powerless to act.


9. (SBU) UNHCR stresses that although asylum seekers have
virtually no access to its office, it continues to be fully
operational through the work of the NGOs who act as its
implementing partners.

Ricciardone