Travel to Chad and Sudan by Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Arthur E. Dewey

Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Arthur E. Dewey will visit Chad and Sudan September 22-29 as part of an international delegation headed by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Ruud Lubbers.

In Chad, Assistant Secretary Dewey will meet with Chadian government officials and representatives of non-governmental and international organizations to discuss the needs of approximately 200,000 refugees from Sudan who are now living in Chad. With Mr. Lubbers and the other delegation members, he will visit Sudanese refugee camps in eastern Chad. The United States is the single largest donor to UNHCR efforts to assist these refugees, having contributed $18 million to date in fiscal year 2004. United States assistance for refugees through UNHCR and other agencies has so far reached approximately $43 million in fiscal year 2004.

In the Darfur region of Sudan, the delegation will review UNHCR’s operations, including a visit to one of the sites housing some of the approximately 1.2 million Sudanese who have been displaced by conflict. Assistant Secretary Dewey with other delegation members will meet with Sudanese authorities to discuss protection concerns for the internally displaced Sudanese. The United States has been in the forefront of providing assistance to the suffering people of Darfur, having provided approximately $220 million in humanitarian assistance for the Darfur region to date. The United States has pledged $299 million in humanitarian aid through fiscal year 2005.

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