The Israeli Interior Ministry has been coercing refugees to agree to ?voluntarily? deport or face indefinite detention, according to two human rights organizations.?The refugees are among the 54,000?West-African expatriates seeking asylum from violence-prone countries. The majority of Israelis do not welcome them. In fact, 52% of Israelis consider refugees a “cancer” according to a Peace Index poll.
The Israeli government calls the refugees ?infiltrators.?
The public anger over the “infiltrators” motivated the Israeli legislature to approve the construction of a wall on the border with Egypt, to mandate temporary-sterilization of migrant women, and to?amended?policy to allow the indefinite detention of refugees. The tactics of the immigration officers tasked with capturing refugees for detention reportedly include?ambushing?refugees seeking treatment at humanitarian clinics.
The prison-like detention camps have deplorable conditions, according to detainees: one housed 5,600 people in tents, and in another, poor conditions resulted in a hunger strike. A prisoner of the second facility said:
We haven’t done anything wrong. We haven’t gone in front of any judge?There aren’t enough bathrooms. We eat the same thing every day, rice.
In a three year period, only 1 person was granted asylum out of thousands of applicants. ?For the others, the only alternative is to agree to return home and likely face?torture and death.
Outside of the camps, life is not much better.
Refugees are under?constant threat of violence. In one case, a group of men serially-assaulted migrants with ?bottles and sticks.? ?Riots and protests erupting from the tension often turn out hundreds and are sometimes violent, as in the case in this video. The protesters’ insulting signs and chants are often accompanied by looting and vandalism. A recent poll showed that a third of Israelis support anti-migrant violence.
The anger of the Israeli public has been the driving force behind Israel’s heavy hand and municipal policy as well. The City of Tel Aviv has been systematically shutting down migrant-owned businesses and?allegedly?formed?school districts to racially-segregate children.
Legislative Legal Advisor: Law does not meet “minimum constitutional standards.”
The indefinite detention of refugees has been challenged in Israeli court. The Israeli Supreme Court has ordered the state to justify the law, but has yet to make a final ruling. The ‘voluntary repatriation’ policy is also challenged on the grounds that it illegally circumvents the prohibition of deporting refugees and various international treaties.?
Edited/Published by: SB
