Tel Aviv court to rule this week on asylum for Liberian refugee
By Tamara Traubmann, Haaretz Correspondent
A Tel Aviv court will rule this week on whether a Liberian refugee whose family was murdered will be allowed to stay in Israel.
Muhammad Biliti's parents were murdered and their bodies butchered during the civil war in Liberia. Biliti managed to flee the country, and for the past decade has lived in Israel.
Despite the obvious danger to his life that Biliti still faces in Liberia, Israel's Interior Ministry has recently refused to renew his visa, and he now faces deportation.
Advertisement
Biliti has petitioned the Tel Aviv Administrative Court against the Interior Ministry and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR), asking to be recognized as a refugee. The court is to rule on his fate in the next few days.
Biliti, who makes a living cleaning houses and fixing computers, belongs to the Mandingo people, an ethnic group that was persecuted by the Mano and Gio nations in Liberia. In April 2006 the UN declared Liberia no longer a state whose residents are in danger, following which the Interior Ministry ruled that all Liberians must leave Israel; their deadline was this past March.
"More than 150,000 refugees have already returned to Liberia, a considerable part of them Mandingos," said Michael Bavli, the UNHCR representative in Israel.
Although the civil war is officially over, there is no peace in Liberia, reports say. Mandingo people who returned have found that their homes, land and property had been taken over by members of other nations.
Even Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf recently asked Western states to allow Liberian refugees to remain until it was safe for them to return to Liberia.
It would be especially dangerous for Muhammad Biliti to return, as his father was an imam (Muslim religious leader) and one of the Mandingo community's leaders. The rebels who assassinated Biliti's father, intending to destroy the Mandingo community in Gampa city, fear that if Muhammad returns, he would take his father's place as leader and encourage the city's residents to fight the Mano and Gio.
"Today I have nowhere to go, nowhere to turn to," he says.
The Interior Ministry commented: "Despite the UN's decision, Mr. Biliti asked to have his matter examined specifically. The matter was examined by a special adviosry committee, which found no personal reasons why Mr. Biliti should not return to Liberia.
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
