A UN official said on Tuesday that Sudan has effectively contributed to combating human trafficking, corruption and money laundering.

This came during a meeting of the regional representative of the Middle East and North Africa of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Cristina Albertin, with the Sudanese Attorney General, Tag El-Sir Ali El-Hibir, in the capital Khartoum, according to a statement issued by the Public Prosecution.

The statement quoted Albertin as saying:

Sudan has effectively contributed to combating human trafficking, corruption, money laundering, and other crimes.

“Sudan will benefit from the Office’s training programs until it makes sure of applying criminal justice and preventing crime,” added Albertin.

For his part, El-Hibir said that “the Public Prosecution manages the investigation of all non-patriotic crimes, such as human trafficking, corruption, and money laundering.”

He pointed out that the Public Prosecution Office has specialised offices in Khartoum and border states more vulnerable to illegal migration and human trafficking.

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El-Hibir indicated that the Sudanese Prosecution aspires, in the cooperation of the UN Regional Office on Drugs and Crime, to further expertise in the field of training and capability building.

Sudan is a considered passageway and source for illegal migrants, mostly from the countries of the Horn of Africa, as they are transported to European shores.

There are no official Sudanese statistics on the numbers of illegal migrants or the gangs that are active in the country to smuggle them. The government justifies this by its weak capabilities compared to the high cost of pursuing gangs across its broad borders.

To reduce the phenomenon, the Sudanese parliament approved in early 2014 a law to combat human trafficking, with penalties ranging from death and imprisonment from five to twenty years.

Note: This page was updated at 13:52 UTC on 15 January 2020 to correct the name of the UNODC Regional Representative. A previous version incorrectly identified David Izadifar, who is a Regional Advisor, as the UNODC Regional Representative.