The Netherlands deported Sudanese asylum seekers despite indications of torture

Newspaper NRC reports that several Sudanese asylum seekers were deported from the Netherlands, despite threats of torture in their home country. Upon their arrival at the airport in the capital, Khartoum, the notorious Sudanese security service NISS interrogated, detained, and – in several instances – tortured the victims.

The Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) repeatedly pushed related evidence aside, according to NRC. This became apparent through a reconstruction based on internal documentation from the Ministry of Justice and Security.

In 2014 and 2018, medical forensic experts concluded from photographs that the serious injury suffered by two deported asylum seekers matched their testimonies. They said that NISS agents detained and tortured them for 10 and 13 days, respectively. One had seven scars of cigarette burns on his arm. The other had at lead ten large whiplash marks on his back and arms.

In 2018, the State Secretary for Asylum and Migration, Mark Habers (VVD), found research by the government institute NFI, which confirmed the findings of instances of torture, insufficient to change the policy. A Sudanese national who was deported shortly afterward tells NRC that he was detained and assaulted for three months and then put to work.