FOREIGN Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw today demanded the Sudanese government do more to protect refugees fleeing their homes after he visited a refugee camp, home to 57,000 people.

They are among 1.2million people living in the Darfur region of Sudan who have fled their homes following a campaign of violence by Arab militias which has left 30,000 dead.

Mr Straw found himself surrounded by cheering refugees when he flew in from the capital, Khartoum, to visit the Abu Shouk camp.

He said: "I knew the numbers, but it is one thing to know the numbers, it is quite another thing to come here, to survey this camp, and to realise that there are more than 50,000 people here."

Mr Straw said he had listened carefully to the refugees' stories about why they had fled their villages, and had heard accounts of aerial bombardment and of militiamen raiding whole villages and slaughtering menfolk in particular.

Darfur has been described as bandit country by aid workers in the region. Having driven the farmers from their villages into the camps, the milita kept them there through abuse such as beatings and sexual attacks. Mr Straw said that he would report to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan before the meeting of the Security Council to decide whether the Sudanese government is doing enough to resolve the crisis.