Sudanese International Migration

Pull factors:

 Jobs:
o Oil-rich Libya
o MEDCs e.g. USA and Canada
o Rich Middle East (Saudi Arabia)
 Asylum in Australia

Push factors:

 50% in poverty
 50% with no access to sanitation
 Drought and famine in the North and center
 Civil war in the south due to ethnic divisions (Black African and Arabs)
 Chadian raiders in the West.
 Between 1989-2004 the government encouraged the displacement of people in the Upper and Blue
Nile regions, in order to mine oil and gold.
 Ethnic cleansing between 2003-2006:
o 2 anti-government groups wanted more power for the people and the government
responded by sending in the Janjaweed (Arab militia).
o 700 villages were attacked and people experienced atrocities.
o 400,000 people killed.
o Janjaweed burnt abandoned villages to prevent emigrants returning.
 After the end of the civil war in South Sudan:
o No schools, healthcare or sanitation
o No civil administration or law enforcement
o There are unexploded mines
o The 600,000 who tried to return were attacked by the Lord’s Resistance Army

Impacts:

 Forced migration:
o Internally displaced people (IDPs) – 2 million in Sudanese refugee camps
o International emigration – 200,000 fled to Eastern Chad
 Brain drain – strong and skilled workforce leaves Sudan
 Cultural degradation:
o Traditional village values lost
o Social and population structure permanently changed
 Overpopulation and increased slums
 Northern people have mostly moved to Khartoum, which now has a population of 7.3 million
 Effort to end poverty have been disrupted

Solutions:

 Over 60 NGOs work in Darfur and Chad:

o Oxfam helps with water supply, sewage and sanitation
o Red Crescent and Red Cross help with food and medical care
o CORD provides education and community services
o UNHCR brings supplies and transports refugees to safer locations. They also set up their 12th
camp in May 2005