For Sudanese refugees, a cycle of flight

Ahmed Khader, a refugee from Darfur, says he's safer in Cairo than he was at home, but still feels at risk. In 2003, he was a reasonably prosperous minibus driver in El-Fasher and owned his own vehicle. But that year, he was accused of supporting Darfur rebels and ended up spending six months in prison. His arms are covered with burn scars that he says are the result of torture during his incarceration. "I was actually a lucky one," he says. "I knew one of the guards from before the war and he got me better treatment."

When he was released from jail in February 2004, he fled to Cairo. Here, he's been attacked on three occasions. The first time, Egyptian men knocked on the door of his one-room apartment. He let them in, and they picked him up and threw him out the window. Fortunately, he lived on the second floor. While he was lying on the sidewalk, they came out and kicked him.

"Why? I can't really say," he says. "Maybe the Sudanese government wanted this … we know they have good relations with the Egyptians."

About a year later, on his way home from his job as a store clerk, he was jumped by a gang of Egyptians and Sudanese, who beat him severely. He thinks this group may have been purely criminal, but he isn't certain. "I went to the Egyptian police. They weren't interested," he says. "I tried to report my situation to the UN, but they won't talk to us anymore."

Afraid, he says he tried to flee through the Cairo airport to Syria. But his passport identifies him as a student, and only Sudanese with occupations listed as "businessmen" are allowed into that country. So, he says, he dabbled in a little forgery.

He was caught at the airport and spent 32 days in an Egyptian detention center during which, he says, he was often beaten. "This is no life here," he says. "If I could find any way out of Egypt, I'd take it."

For the moment, there are no legitimate ways out. The US is not accepting Sudanese refugees because it's hoping that the peace process there will work. Most of the traditional refugee-receiving countries have followed suit.

Mack Riak, a young Dinka from southern Sudan, says that leaves no options for Sudanese who hope to make the case to the UN that they need resettlement for safety reasons. Mr. Riak says his father was a southern Sudanese rebel and was killed in 1985, but that his own problems are only loosely connected to that conflict.

While living in Khartoum in 2002, he convinced a Muslim friend to convert to Christianity, a capital offense. When the police came to arrest him, he fled.

In August 2004, he had a refugee processing meeting set up at the UN. But when he arrived, he was told the meeting was postponed because of peace negotiations in the south. He was told to come back in December. He did, and was then told to return the following June. He kept that appointment, but was told that all interviews were indefinitely postponed.

"Do I believe my life would be in danger if I went home? Yes," he says. "Does any peace agreement, which is only a peace of paper, change that? No."

• Part 1 of 2. Tomorrow: Growing numbers of Sudanese refugees in Israel.

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