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October 28, 2007
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Local Sudanese urge Canada to accept refugees
Displaced Darfur victims in 'desperate need' |
By
TOM GODFREY
, SUN MEDIA
Members of the city's Sudanese community are calling on Canada to accept more refugees from the Darfur region who they say are barely staying alive in crowded camps.
Community members want Ottawa to play a humanitarian role in Darfur as it did in accepting hundreds of refugees from Kosovo, Bosnia and Vietnam.
"The situation in the refugee camps in Darfur is getting worse every day," Bakri Abdalla, of the Darfur Association of Canada, said yesterday at a small rally at Queen's Park.
"There are women and children dying from disease."
There are about 2 million displaced people and more than 240,000 refugees living in 12 camps on the Darfur-Chad border being looked after by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, which tries to find countries to accept some of the needy.
"These people are in desperate need of help," Abdalla said. "Canada has generously helped other countries in the past."
HUNDREDS DYING
Simon Agok, of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, said hundreds of his countrymen are dying from malaria, cholera and other diseases.
"People are dying on a daily basis in Darfur," Agok said. "Some of the desperate ones can be brought here since we are such a rich country."
Activist Sebit Lado said refugee women in the camps are often raped or assaulted by men.
"Everybody knows somebody in the refugee camps," Lado said at Queen's Park. "The conditions are pretty drastic with very little water and food."
There are up to 40,000 Sudanese in Canada. Most arrived as refugee claimants as a result of a four-year civil war in Darfur that has killed at least 200,000 people.
Sudan's government declared an immediate unilateral ceasefire at the opening of Darfur peace negotiations yesterday, but a boycott of the talks by key rebel groups cast doubt on whether the move could produce meaningful progress. |
