Home Office 'collaborating with Sudan over refugees'

Human rights campaigners claim the Home Office is collaborating with the Sudanese government to question asylum-seekers fleeing the violence in Darfur.

The charities allege that the UK has passed information about individuals to the Sudanese embassy despite claims that they face persecution if they are returned to their homeland.

A coalition of pressure groups will today write to John Reid, the Home Secretary, attacking the Home Office for allowing Sudanese officials to interview people when they report to immigration offices. The Home Office insisted that it never passed information on asylum applications or criminal records to foreign governments. Officials said they did involve other countries to establish the nationality of people whose asylum applications had been rejected and people in Britain illegally so they could be given travel documents to allow them to return home.

Sadiq Abakar, 29, who fled Darfur for Britain in 1999, said he was asked questions about his background and tribe by a Sudanese official when he attended an appointment at the Home Office last month.

He said he was asked to go into a side room, where a Sudanese embassy official questioned him in Arabic about his tribal background. He said: "It's like somebody taking you to see your killer. Since then, I have not felt safe. It's just not right at all. It is really, really scary."

Campaigners said asylum-seekers in Leeds were also questioned by Sudanese officials at an immigration reporting centre.

Michael Moore, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: "This absolutely beggars belief, the sheer insensitivity displayed is scandalous. The Government is fast developing a reputation for its shabby treatment of asylum-seekers from the most troubled parts of the world."

The letter to Mr Reid, signed by organisations including Human Rights Watch , the Aegis Trust and the Refugee Council, says: "Not only is this close working relationship disturbing, given the role of the Sudanese government and its security agencies in the persecution of Darfuris; it is also in serious breach of confidentiality and raises questions as to whether this is compatible with the Human Rights Act."

Louise Roland-Gosselin, director of the charity Waging Peace, which drafted the letter, said: "Given the Sudanese government's known complicity in the ongoing genocide in Darfur, it is deeply concerning that the UK is attempting to send people from Darfur back to Sudan. It has a legal obligation under international law to protect Darfuri asylum- seekers from persecution."

A Home Office spokesman said: "It is standard practice to seek the assistance of other governments to establish the nationality of immigration offenders during the re-documentation process, if an individual is unable to provide their own travel document. However, the British government does not disclose information on an individual's criminal or asylum history to other governments."