Last update - 00:00 12/07/2007
Rights group to AG: Prevent arrest raid of African refugees
By Ruth Sinai and Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondents
The Hotline for Migrant Workers sent a letter to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Thursday asking him to prevent a night raid that immigration police were reportedly planning in Eilat, in which they would arrest all the Sudanese refugees in the city and transfer them to a nearby prison.
According to information gathered by the migrant worker's rights group, the refugees would then have a "quick hearing" and be deported from the country.
The immigration police denied planning an arrest raid in Eilat. A police source confirmed that they did in fact collect information on the number of refugees in Eilat and their addresses, however the source said that a decision on the matter of the Sudanese refugees in Eilat has yet to be reached.
The police did say that beginning Monday, they would begin sending back to Egypt any refugee who is caught infiltrating the border with Israel. Refugees that will succeed in entering Israel will be arrested and taken to the Kziot prison in the Negev.
The immigration police however stated that a decision has not been made regarding the refugees living in Eilat, and a decision is not expected to be made soon.
In a letter sent to the attorney general, the rights group stated that the refugees in Eilat did not escape arrest but rather were released by the state and therefore cannot be re-arrested, but only summoned to a hearing.
The letter also stated that the immigration police have been planning the arrest operation thoroughly, and 400 policemen are supposed to take part in the raid.
"A wholesale arrest of Sudanese refugees, which includes young children and infants, in the framework of a clandestine operation is against the law and reeks of actions taken by dark regimes", the letter read.
"Many of the refugees are suffering from post-traumatic stress due to their experiences before coming to Israel. A police raid in the middle of the night on this population could have catastrophic results."
The letter also stated that the refugees must not be deported at this time, since an apparatus guaranteeing that the Egyptians do not send the refugees back to Sudan has yet to be established.