Refugees are not criminals
In recent months, district courts have heard 17 petitions by refugees who were held in detention for a year or more, a violation of their legal rights.
Haaretz EditorialA few days after the cabinet decided to deport hundreds of children of foreign workers - children who grew up in Israel - it has emerged that the state established by Jewish refugees from countries plagued by xenophobia is treating asylum seekers cruelly.
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Migrant workers from Africa at the central bus station in Tel Aviv July, 2009 |
| Photo by: Nir Keidar |
The investigative report by Lital Levin, published in the Hebrew edition of Haaretz over the weekend, reveals that some 2,500 asylum seekers are being held in Israeli jails, having been detained for many months and in some cases, even years. They include hundreds of refugees from Eritrea and Sudan, war-torn countries where thousands of citizens are persecuted and eligible for refugee status.
In recent months, district courts have heard 17 petitions by refugees who were held in detention for a year or more, even though the Entry into Israel Law stipulates that a person who entered the country improperly should be deported within 60 days or freed.
The detainees include a refugee from Sudan against whom a deportation order was issued more than two years ago. In every one of these cases, the judges ordered the immediate release of the detainees.
The 2001 amendment to the Entry into Israel Law requires the courts to provide judicial review of the detention orders issued by the Interior Ministry against the jailed illegal aliens whose cases are being heard. The courts are authorized to decide, on the basis of checks carried out by the Interior Ministry or the United Nations, whether the detention order should remain in force or the asylum seeker should be released. This monitoring system is meant to keep Israeli jails from becoming refugee camps for illegal immigrants and job seekers.
Not everyone who sneaks across the Israeli border is a refugee eligible for shelter and protection. A sovereign state has the right to enforce immigration laws and deport foreigners seeking work and welfare rights.
But this does not authorize the Interior Ministry and law enforcement officials to hold hundreds of people behind bars for an extended period. They must examine, without delay, the status of all the asylum seekers illegally incarcerated, and ensure that the prisons do not become a solution for the accommodation of non-criminals.
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... the message that Israel is an intolerant hell-hole of corruption, moral depravity, injustice, violence, and toenail fungus, despised and isolated by the world. Why then do the refugees keep coming to Israel, rather than more acceptable places such as Egypt, SA, Gaza, Jordan and Syria?
Its not jail. Its protective custody .
Have you been to Ketziot? I have and its most definately jail- except without walls and heating. Only tents.
If the refugees comes from Darfur it is a shame if you don't take them because of the genocide since 2003. Otherwise it it is difficult to find out whether a refugee is a political, ecological or economical refugee. It costs a lot of time to find papers, attestors of his political activities. But they are not criminals, they are victims of political, economical, ecological situations which are orften produced by the big countries. House of King David
When thousands of people entering the country illegally its not always possible to hear their case in 60 days. That means saying ok 60 days are up as we haven't got round to hearing your case yet you can go and stay here legally which is not an option or the alternative is keep them locked up until their case can be heard. What Israel does need is detention centers where people can be locked up until their case is heard its just not a jail which also means we can free up jail cells for actual criminals. We cannot though say 60 days are up even if your case hasn't been heard you can go. You have to deal with this matter based on reality not how things should work in theory.
When it refused refuge to the German Jews on the U.S.S. Saint Louis. Many Israelis certainly think refugees are criminals when those refugees come from Darfur believing that Israelis meant it when they were wept with compassion for the suffering in Darfur. Funny how easy it is to be for 'refugees' when it is politically beneficial, and how easy it is to view them as criminals when it is politically beneficial to do so.