Subscribe to Print Edition | Tue., February 19, 2008 Adar1 13, 5768 | | Israel Time: 02:16 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Advertising Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

African refugees flood UN office in Tel Aviv By Ruth Sinai Tags: Ketziot, Tel Aviv, Refugees  The employees of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Israel are not the most popular occupants of their Tel Aviv building. Yesterday, their neighbor, a large travel company, demanded their eviction by the building's management. That morning, the firm's workers had to walk through a crowd of hundreds of Africans who were waiting to register at the UN institution, which is situated on the building's first floor. The travel workers could barely open the doors of their own office on the ground floor. There were precisely 430 people waiting outside the UNHCR office. Thirty of them were Sudanese, the rest came from Eritrea - the two largest groups of African refugees in Israel. Many of them had initially been arrested by the Israel Defense Forces after they infiltrated the border from Egypt. Security forces brought them by bus to Be'er Sheva, where they were then left to their own devices. The refugees made their way to Tel Aviv from there. Advertisement According to an agreement between the army and the Interior Ministry, the IDF was supposed to have taken them to Ketziot detention facility, near the Egyptian border. Attempts by ministry officials to find out why the refugees had been dumped in Be'er Sheva were not responded to with concrete answers. The incident reflects the confusion, inconsistency and lack of coordination so characteristic of Israel's treatment of the refugees pouring across its borders. The UNCHR has processed 6,500 requests by asylum-seekers from Sudan, and is currently reviewing another 2,000 applications. The applicants are without formal status in Israel because the state refuses to recognize them as refugees, citing the fact that they come from an enemy country. But international law prevents it from deporting them. This, in turn, puts the state in another bind. It cannot prevent the asylum-seekers from working, even though Israeli law does not allow employers to hire citizens from enemy states. The state has come up with an ingenious solution to this problem: It equips the refugees with formal letters guaranteeing that anyone employing them will not be prosecuted for breaking the law. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Artistic justice Israel Museum to exhibit art looted by Nazis and unclaimed. Let in snow For second time this winter, Jerusalem braces for snow.   1.   AFRICAN REFUGEES 12:47  |  HM 18/02/08   2.   refuge state 13:31  |  habakkok 18/02/08   3.   #1 HM 15:42  |  judith 18/02/08   4.   #1 Do your homework. Just because you hope history will re-write 16:06  |  Global Citizen 18/02/08   5.   We once were refugees too 19:16  |  yudit 18/02/08

Today Online Bradley Burston: Anti-Zionism as a form of racism Responses: 266 Foreign Min. expected to slam Iran anti-Israel jibe in missive to UN Responses: 235 Top diplomat: Calling Sderot-Gaza violence 'cycle' may breed terror Responses: 114 Anshel Pfeffer: Are Israeli policies risking the lives of Diaspora Jews? Responses: 60 Abbas rejects PM call to defer talks on Jerusalem Responses: 87 Report: Progress made in Shalit prisoner swap deal Responses: 35 More Headlines 23:45 FM: Ending peace talks now would bolster Hamas 23:04 Sources: Israel deploys Patriot missiles fearing Hezbollah strike 02:15 Lebanon braces itself for possible Hezbollah attack on Israel 23:45 Foreign Ministry said to slam Iranian anti-Israel jibe in missive to UN 22:05 Nine Qassams hit Negev, one strikes yard of home in Sderot 20:24 Top diplomat: Calling violence in south a 'cycle' may breed terror 01:57 France sends 29 to trial over kidnap and murder of Jewish man 01:47 Israelis 30 times more likely to be wiretapped than Americans 01:19 Vatican: Pius XII sainthood process not stalled 00:58 Coldest January in 15 years falls short of being Israel's harshest winter 22:04 Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi to retain position despite AG opposition 21:55 Mauritania releases 8 detained after Israeli embassy attack 22:40 Prisons Service refuses early release of man charged with giving Hezbollah information 00:10 Defense Min. in Singapore set to publicly attend weapons expo Previous Editions Select Day 18 feb 17 feb 15 feb 14 feb 13 feb 12 feb 11 feb 10 feb 08 feb 07 feb 06 feb 05 feb

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