First Aid for migrants in Sudan saves lives

More than 100 officials from customs and immigration in Sudan have been trained in First Aid up to February 2018. As first responders, these officials are now able to better provide migrants with immediate assistance and medical help in often precarious situations. Especially irregular migrants face numerous challenges on their journey, often being dehydrated, bitten by scorpions or snakes, injured, infected or abused by smugglers or human traffickers. The EU Trust Fund and Germany are supporting the improvement of protection of and assistance to migrants within the Better Migration Management Programme (BMM).

The First Aid trainings in Kassala and Northern State were conducted by the Sudanese Red Crescent Society (SRCS) and supported by BMM. Lectures were underpinned by practical sessions simulating the response to emergency situations. ‘We even had a professional make-up specialist who showed the participants how snakebites and bone fractures look like’, Sami Hadi Adam said. The manager of the Northern State branch of SRCS has organised all six training events since October 2017 and believes that ‘first responders have to know how these injuries might look like, so they can provide appropriate assistance’. The training also raised awareness among the first responders about the dangers and difficulties migrants are facing on their journey. Following successful completion, the participants were provided with first-aid kits and booklets to be able to apply their gained knowledge and skills in the future.

The BMM Programme is a regional, multi-year and multi-partner programme funded by the EU Trust Fund for Africa and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) for a total of EUR 46 million, aiming to improve migration management in the region, and in particular to address the trafficking and smuggling of migrants within and from the Horn of Africa.