Ahmed Fadl-Khartoum

Fear and apprehension dominated the victims of the Emirati company "Black Shield" from the returning Sudanese after their escape from the deception of the guard posts that were a front for pushing them into the Emirates wars in Libya and Yemen.

The arrival of a group of 209 young men from Abu Dhabi to Khartoum after the approval of three months salary compensation from the company, at a value of 5500 dirhams, was deemed insufficient to compensate for the financial and psychological damage they suffered.

According to a former INTERPOL police officer - Al Jazeera Net - Sudanese soldiers in retirement, as well as Sudanese security guard companies and passports policemen, were involved in the travel of hundreds of Sudanese youth through Black Shield.

The former policeman says that what happened falls under human trafficking and was hatched by a window so severe that it granted fifty thousand pounds (about five hundred dollars) a bribe to a passport officer to facilitate the exit visa for three hundred passports at once.

And it indicates that the monthly salary that was set for security guard jobs via "Black Shield" was attractive compared to the salaries of these jobs, as it reached $ 1,200.

A surprise in Abu Dhabi
Al-Baraa Mohammed Othman (one of the young victims returning from Abu Dhabi) says that he traveled to the Emirates through "Black Shield" in a group of 209 young men who were chosen after the inspections of thousands of young people.

However, according to Al-Bara, they were surprised after their arrival in Abu Dhabi by taking them to a huge army camp near the UAE capital, and they were subjected to a careful search that included the confiscation of their mobile phones.

After the arrival of subsequent groups from Sudan, they informed them of leaks of news about the company exploiting young Sudanese to fight in Libya and Yemen. As a result, those in the camp protested and under pressure they were enabled by their phones, where they made contact with their relatives who informed them of the need to return.

Al-Bara, who spoke to Al-Jazeera Net from the land port in Khartoum as he was preparing to travel to a state to meet his relatives for the first time since his return from the Emirates, confirms that they asked the Emirati camp officers to attend a representative of Black Shield to understand him.

Al-Bara: After our arrival in Abu Dhabi, we were surprised that we were taken to a huge army camp, and we were subjected to a careful search that included the confiscation of our phones (Al-Jazeera)

Work options
Al-Bara added that after the pressure, the camp management agreed and the general manager of the company, who is an Emirati national, attended and informed them that they would undergo a training course between six and seven weeks, after which they would have the option to work in guard jobs in the UAE or abroad.

The director of the Sudanese youth company stated that the UAE has investments in Saudi Arabia, France, Libya and Sudan, and if the choice is made to work outside the UAE, the salary will be double.

But part of the youth chose to return to Sudan, and Black Shield manager asked them to leave the meeting room to arrange their return to Sudan, which happened after painstaking negotiations on compensation.

Al-Bara says that the camp officials in those days have tightened the camp's guard by encircling it with military reinforcements after monitoring attempts to escape from the camp despite the difficulty of escaping from the huge camp located in a cellular area.

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Fear and tension
Mustafa Ibrahim Mustafa recalls the first moments of their arrival in Abu Dhabi at night, as they were quickly transferred to an army camp called "Standard". The next morning, they were transferred to the Mohammed bin Zayed camp, where they stayed for two weeks before returning.

And he refers - in his talk to Al Jazeera Net - that the Emirati camp officers showed fear and tension after the Sudanese youth protested and their insistence on knowing their fate and the fate of the Sudanese who were deported to Libya.

He says camp officials have tightened inspections and cleared any video clips of Sudanese youths on their smartphones.

Upon the arrival of the director of Black Shield - according to Mustafa - he initially tried to deny the deportation of Sudanese to Libya, saying that they were working in facilities in Abu Dhabi, but under the pressure of the youth, he admitted that they left for Libya of their own free will.

It is reported that the director of the company divided the group coming from Sudan by enticing them to travel to Libya to work in guarding oil fields, where about 85 accepted this, and the rest of the group rejected the offer, preferring to return to Khartoum.

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Other victims
According to the retired Interpol police, for about five months, the Emirati Black Shield, through the Amanda and Princess agencies in Sudan, managed to travel about 880 young men in three batches who underwent military training in a camp in Abu Dhabi Emirate for a period of three months.

And he confirms that the Emiratis are giving youth training after three things: either joining the army to secure oil areas for three thousand dollars or working in the police or working in guard jobs for 1200 dollars.

He warns that this plan was stopped after the recent news leaked about the travel of Sudanese through the Emirates to fight in Libya and Yemen.

According to Mustafa Ibrahim Mustafa, the official of the Emirati company agreed with them inside the army camp in Abu Dhabi to end their services in return for compensation represented by a three-month salary, "5500 AED."

He says that the Amanda agency exploited the need of the returnees before receiving compensation in Abu Dhabi, and after they arrived in Khartoum without funds, I asked them to sign a pledge in the presence of lawyers not to hold the agency, Black Shield, or the UAE embassy in exchange for compensation.

Negotiate compensation
And a group of Sudanese youths entered into negotiations with the Emirati company before their return, and Al-Bara says he was chosen to negotiate with the company manager, who initially offered a month's salary bonus.

Al-Bara added that he refused the offer, and the company manager mentioned that the UAE law forces him to pay a three-month salary, and he agreed, but he refused any talk about paying two-year salaries as compensation for financial losses and psychological damage.

The most victims of Black Shield were from the northern state, and Abdullah Muhammed Abdullah, from the city of Meroe, said that 168 of the state's sons were deceived.

He explains that he quit his job to travel through this European-Emirati company (Black Shield) before he leaked the latest news and stopped its activity, but his brother "Hassan" and two of his cousins ​​are still there and waiting for their return with great concern.

He adds that he paid about 150,000 pounds (about $ 1,500) for his travel procedures, so the victims are in the process of forming a committee to prosecute the company and the travel agencies involved.

Governmental embarrassment
The Sudanese government appears in an embarrassing position from the reality of its delay in stating its position on the crisis, especially after the successive protests in front of the UAE embassy and travel agencies in Khartoum.

In a press statement, Minister of Culture and Information Faisal Muhammed Salih confirmed the validity of the contracts in which the youth left the UAE and their choice between two decades, noting the great cooperation by the Emirates in this regard and the formation of an operations room to return those who wish.

For its part, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry confirmed its follow-up to the recruitment of Emirati companies, especially Sudanese citizens, to work as security guards without commitment later, as stated in the testimonies of the families of the victims, which led to the transfer of some of them to work in the oil fields in Libya.

The Foreign Ministry pledged to work with the relevant authorities and the Emirates to investigate various aspects that were received on the issue.