Last update - 00:00 08/01/2008
Interior Ministry grants work permits to one hundred Eritrean refugees
By Nurit Wurgaft, Haaretz Correspondent
One hundred refugees from Eritrea received work permits from the Interior Ministry Monday. They are the first of almost 1,000 refugees who will be given such permits in the coming days.
The permits are being awarded following a special decision last week by Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit and the head of the Population Administration, Yaakov Ganot.
"The decision stems from humanitarian considerations in light of the United Nations' request that the Eritreans not be returned to their country, due to severe infractions of human rights there," said Yossi Edelstein, director of the Population Administration's department of aliens.
The Interior Ministry views the six-month work permit as an interim solution.
"The first to receive the permits were refugees living in shelters in south Tel Aviv, to allow them to move out and make room for those now housed in Ketziot Prison," Edelstein said.
The dictatorial regime in Eritrea, located in east Africa, sees those who leave the country as defectors. If they return, they face imprisonment, torture or even death. The families of those who flee are also at risk.
A woman now residing in Ketziot Prison said two weeks ago that after her husband fled, the Eritrean police demanded that she give him up and threatened that if she did not, they would take her instead. She ran away that night, leaving her two-year-old daughter in her mother's care. "I don't know if my husband is alive or dead and my mother does not know whether I am alive. I worry about my daughter," she said.
Her fears are not groundless. Another refugee, a teacher who tried to halt the forced draft in the school where he taught, said that after he fled, his wife was arrested with their baby and jailed for two weeks.
Some of the refugees in Ketziot, located in the northern Negev, were released to work on local moshavim, where they were exploited and lived under terrible conditions. However, they did not dare run away. "We are prepared to do anything so as not to be deported," said an Eritrean man who worked on a Negev moshav.
The man said he fled Eritrea after spending six months undergoing torture, including confinement in a small metal box, in a military prison for having expressed a personal opinion during a political rally in his army unit. "When they took me out of the box they made me run," he said. "I ran until I fainted and they put me back in the box." He added that his hands and feet were frequently tied behind him, and he was forced to stand on his hands until he collapsed, after which he was beaten.
After hearing about Sheetrit's decision Monday, he said: "I am no longer afraid. Now I feel protected." Wednesday, he and his friends will go to the Population Administration in Be'er Sheva to receive their permits.
And what will happen after the six months are up? "I don't know. At least now we can decide for ourselves what to do," he said.
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