About 54% of Sudanese wish to leave their country, a study released Wednesday has disclosed.
Conducted by the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies in Qatar, the report reveals that out of those seeking to leave, 79% were unhappy with their living conditions; 5% security reasons and 4% would prefer a better political climate.
Already, about 25,000 Sudanese left the country in 2013, official data indicates, a figure that civil society contests, putting it at around 90,000.
“Sudan ranked first among countries included in the report such as Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Palestine, Yemen, Kuwait and Libya” the fresh study says.
Most of the Sudanese respondents preferred moving to Saudi Arabia (20 per cent), Qatar (10 per cent) and the US (8 per cent).
The survey is the second in an ongoing series. The first one was between 2010 and 2011 on a sample size of 16,173 in 12 Arab countries, compared to 21,350 in 2012-2013.
The supervisor of the project, Mr Mohammed al-Masri, said the survey was the most extensive one that had been carried out in the Arab world.
He added that it analysed the results of the data at the provincial and the states level.
Responding to the report, Sudan’s commission of statistics refuted the figures, describing the report as baseless, biased and unscientific.
On the other hand, the leader of the Sudanese opposition alliance, Mr Farouq Abu Issa, concurred with the study, saying the economic situation in Sudan could be worse than captured by the survey.
“Dictatorship, corruption and wrong polices are the key reasons which have led to this situation” he told media.
Currently, Sudan is hard hit by an economic crisis caused by a severe shortage of hard currency following the loss of three quarters of its oil production after South Sudan gained its independence in 2011.
Oil was the main source of income for Sudan’s budget and for foreign currency needed to pay for vital imports, including food and medicine
NMG
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