Khartoum - Director General of Passports and Immigration Authority Police General Ahmed Atta Almannan said that the Ministry of Interior announced plans to assess and adjust foreign presence in the country and to limit the illegal residence, stressing in the meantime the need not to feel alarmed by this presence.

Speaking in the radio program "Radio Conference" Atta Almannan said that foreign presence in the country was limited before the economic boom provoked by the oil sector which attracted foreign labor.

 

"Many legal and illegal residents came to Sudan in pursuit of employment and work. The media has covered this extensively" he said.

He added that the advantages of foreign presence are more the disadvantages because foreign laborers have taken part in the developmental leap; especially considering the gap in labor caused by the secession of South Sudan and the migration of local laborers to the northern, western, and eastern parts of the country for gold mining.

"Laws must cope with these developments. There's an ongoing cooperation with the state of Khartoum in this regard considering it has the largest foreign presence of all states." He said.

The director said the Ministry of Interior has asked foreign embassies to legalize their citizens' residence in Sudan and went on to say: "Laws state that citizens have a role to play in adjusting foreign presence in the country and penalize those who employ illegal foreign labor and fail to report that to the authorities and those who smuggle foreigners into the country. "Citizens" he said: "are the beneficiaries from registering foreigners and having them identified given that such procedures ensure the preservation of citizens' security and property."

He added that according to the statistics of the Ministry of Interior only 50 thousand of the 2 million foreigners in the country are in possession of legal residence papers.

General Salah Khlaifa, director of Civil Registry, explained that the civil registry of a person includes basic information of the individual and the life-events related to them such birth, marriage, divorce, and death.

"The Civil Registry Law of 2001, amended in 2011 delegated the registration of all civil status information to the Ministry of Interior. This project, however, is one in which several government agencies partake considering it is a strategic project that provides information for vital state operation through planning and ensuring the quality of services provided," he added.

He pointed out that registering citizens is an ongoing process given that life events such as birth, marriage, etc do not stop and added: "The registry will include all the people in the country and will provide a database of information to all authorities to use for the supply of health, education, and other services.

By Al-Sammani Awadallah