By Peter Graff
LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Human rights groups feared on Monday that Darfur refugees who reached Britain could be sent to Sudan and tortured after London lifted a ban on deporting them to Khartoum.
Britain had said in December last year that it would stop deporting failed asylum seekers to Sudan while it investigated a report by the pressure group The Aegis Trust that refugees sent back to Khartoum had been tortured.
But a Border Agency spokeswoman said the review was now complete and Immigration Minister Liam Byrne had written to the Aegis Trust to say its accusations of torture were not proven and deportations to Sudan's capital Khartoum could resume.
"Our asylum decisions are humane and compassionate and crucially oversight by independent judges helps ensure justice is done," the spokeswoman said.
"The House of Lords has recently agreed that people facing persecution in Darfur can relocate to Khartoum."
The Aegis Trust said in a statement that it disagreed with the government's assessment, believed at least two Darfur refugees had been tortured after being sent back from Britain and intended to present new evidence in future cases.
Asylum seeker Abubaker Yousef Mohammed, who arrived in Britain inside a lorry after fleeing Darfur more than two years ago, told Reuters he had been issued a plane ticket and ordered to return to Khartoum on Sunday.
"All my village, the Janjaweed militia is coming, they killed people there. They killed my father and also they killed my brother. I also lost my wife. I don't know if she's alive or dead," he told Reuters by telephone from a British immigration detention centre where he is being held pending deportation.
He said he had worked for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a Darfuri rebel group which attacked Khartoum's sister city Omdurman in May. Human rights groups say the government has been rounding up JEM members in Khartoum in recent weeks.
"I am working with the Justice Movement," he said. "I am sure, if I go, this time they are going to wait for me in the airport there. I am sure, if they don't kill me, maybe I will be in prison six or seven years."
Waging Peace, another pressure group campaigning for the rights of Darfur refugees, said it had learned Britain had already deported one Darfur refugee since lifting the ban, without publicly announcing a change in policy.
"The UK government has promised to help the people of Darfur. Instead we are sending them into grave danger -- beneath the radar of public scrutiny," Waging Peace Director Lousie Roland-Gosselin said in a statement.
"The government must stand by its pledge to protect innocent people from persecution and must halt deportations to Sudan immediately." (Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)
