Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2014 19:54:43 +0100
'Voluntary' expulsion
The government must protect the asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea, as
long as their return to their countries constitutes a risk to their lives.
Haaretz Editorial
<http://www.haaretz.com/misc/writers/haaretz-editorial-1.239> | Mar. 6,
2014 | 3:46 AM
Israel grants group protection to asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea, as
it is bound to do by the Refugee Convention the state has signed. Group
protection means that Israel cannot deport people whose lives would be in
danger in their own country.
Many asylum seekers who applied for refugee status were told by the Interior
Ministry that they didn't need it, because they have group protection.
Israel gave them a visa that enables them to stay in the country, but not to
work in it.
However, in the underhanded, sneaky method adopted by the Interior Ministry,
the state shut its eyes to the fact that the asylum seekers were working,
and to their employers. Apparently the Interior Ministry also understood
that without working and making a living, the asylum seekers' presence would
be even more problematic.
The requests from Eritreans to the Interior Ministry for refugee status were
denied. In other countries such requests were treated differently. In 2008,
for example, Britain granted asylum to about 80 percent of the applicants.
Canada granted 95 percent of the requests. In Israel the asylum seekers
continue to be under the state's group protection.
Although the completion of the border fence prevented the entrance of more
asylum seekers almost entirely, Prime Minister
<http://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/Benjamin%20Netanyahu-1.476753> Benjamin
Netanyahu and Interior Minister
<http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/interior-minister-gideon-sa-ar-israel-
s-policy-is-to-deport-illegal-infiltrators.premium-1.514629> Gideon Sa'ar
continue to apply steamroller tactics to make the asylum seekers leave
"voluntarily." The pressure includes a ban on working, which turned them
into a social problem; reducing their access to the Interior Ministry and
building a detention center, to which they are transferred forcibly. The
government also passed a law authorizing the state to keep them in the
detention center for a long period of time, without judicial process. A
previous version of this law was struck down unanimously by the High Court
of Justice.
Sa'ar admitted on Tuesday that Israel has been flying refugees to third
states and even boasted of the dramatic rise in the number of asylum seekers
who have recently left Israel "voluntarily."
The interior minister is not telling the public the truth. Only a few of the
asylum seekers have asked for refugee status, because the Interior Ministry
told the Sudanese and Eritreans they have no need of it, as they have group
protection. The pressure on the asylum seekers is exerted not only in the
prisons, but in the city centers and by the very authorities who are
supposed to be looking after them.
Israel's legal and moral conduct regarding the asylum seekers is riddled
with flaws and failures. The government must protect the asylum seekers from
Sudan and Eritrea, as long as their return to their countries constitutes a
risk to their lives. The attorney general must see to it that the government
enables them to work for a living and to live as free people.
Thousands of African asylum seekers stage protest
Thousands of African asylum seekers during their recent protest Photo by AFP
(image/jpeg attachment: image001.jpg)