South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
The government has started registering and issuing travel documents to refugees after tens of thousands of refugees entered the country without travel documents.
When fighting in Sudan erupted in mid-April, between the army and a rival paramilitary, the Rapid Support Forces, thousands of Sudanese and other nationals fled the fighting with no travel documents.
The National Minister of Interior Angelina Teny on Monday said the issuing of travel documents required support from the international community.
“We kicked off a process of registering and ensuring that they will be getting travel documents and these travel documents should be readable, so that they can also get along with their activities. This is also going to require support and we committed ourselves to that,’ Angelina told journalists at Juba International Airport upon arrival from Geneva, Switzerland.
Teny and the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management Albino Akol Atak attended the 2023 Global Refugee Forum in Geneva.
The three-day forum, which was attended by over 4,200 participants from 168 countries, got over 1,600 pledges, more than the 2019 forum.
Teny said the country made six pledges to enhance the services of refugees and host communities in the during the Global Refugee Forum held in Geneva.
“We have also committed ourselves to ending stateliness. This is another pledge we made and it is very crucial because every person in this world is entitled to belong, you must belong to a country and you must belong to a community,” she said.
Teny said that South Sudan promised to support and ensure the safe return with dignity of refugees who would voluntarily return to their countries.
“We have refugees from Central Africa and we have been hosting these refugees and there has been a forum which has been created by all neighboring countries to Central Africa and in the side of the event, we also made our pledges on how to support and ensure safe return with the dignity of those who would v voluntarily return home,” she said.
South Sudan currently hosts over 70,000 refugees from Sudan and 2 million internally displaced persons due to conflict, insecurity and the impact of climate change.
The Global Refugee Forum hosted by Switzerland from 13 to 14 December 2023 in Geneva was first held in 2019.
