{"id":154,"date":"2011-02-25T19:23:33","date_gmt":"2011-02-25T19:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/?p=154"},"modified":"2011-04-15T23:12:06","modified_gmt":"2011-04-15T23:12:06","slug":"israel-struggles-to-absorb-africa-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/2011\/02\/israel-struggles-to-absorb-africa-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Struggles to Absorb Africa Refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"

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BY NICOLE SCHILIT<\/p>\n

Johannes (name has been changed) is a twenty five year old refugee from Eritrea who came to Israel four months ago through Sudan and then Egypt.\u00a0 He lives not far from South Tel Aviv Bus Terminal, an expansive Soviet-looking looking building that most people describe as the \u201cwhite elephant\u201d.\u00a0 The complex boasts a shopping mall that includes 29 escalators and 13 elevators with over 1,000 shops and restaurants.\u00a0 It is the second largest central bus station in the world.<\/p>\n

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The drive along Allenby\u00a0Road, the street that takes you from downtown to South Tel Aviv towards the Bus Terminal, allows you to very quickly witness the stark transformation from a predominantly white Israeli neighborhood to an almost exclusively black one.\u00a0 South Tel Aviv, also now referred to as \u201cLittle Africa,\u201d is home to more than 30,000 African refugees seeking asylum in Israel. \u00a0The change in demographic is striking in the Jewish State.\u00a0\u00a0 The Israeli population now shares its small piece of land sandwiched between Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon not only with Palestinians, but with asylum seekers from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Darfur and South Sudan.\u00a0 And these new arrivals are not being received with open arms.<\/p>\n

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Israel has always been and continues to be a fixture in the news due to the contentious politics in the Middle East and its territorial dispute with the Palestinians. Beyond the political conflict, however, Israel is fighting another battle against a visible migration problem that is bringing African asylum seekers to a nation that is persistently claims that it does not have the resources or prosperity to house them on their piece of holy land.\u00a0 Israeli policy makers are struggling to find a way to deal with this problem and keep the potential unrest at a minimum.\u00a0\u00a0 Refugee advocates, however, believe that policy makers <\/strong>are creating a new crisis, with its plan to pen refugees in a desert camp where they can\u2019t support themselves while refusing to create a procedure that will fairly resolve their asylum claims.\u00a0 Advocates are fighting to protect the refugee\u2019s rights by rallying against the closed facility and urging policy makers to allow the refugees to work in the country.<\/p>\n

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For the Africans arriving in South Tel Aviv, Israel represents the only opportunity they have to eventually reach the United States, Europe, or Australia.\u00a0 Their journey begins when they leave their war-torn homeland and make their way on foot to Sudan.\u00a0 From Sudan they travel up through Egypt and across the Sinai.\u00a0 If they are lucky they will spend less than one year imprisoned in a detention facility before they attempt to cross the Egyptian border.\u00a0 Many of the refugees will arrive in Israel with fresh bullet wounds, courtesy of the border patrol.<\/p>\n

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Johannes spent only 15 days in Egypt because he was \u201cvery lucky\u201d.\u00a0 The day after he went to Israel a new policy was instated.\u00a0 No one would be able to leave Egypt for Israel now without paying an $8,000 dollar fine imposed by the Egyptian Government.\u00a0 Most of the friends and people he travelled with are still there.<\/p>\n

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As soon as these African migrants cross the border into Israel, they are no longer considered refugees.\u00a0\u00a0 Israel has decided that the entire populations of African asylum seekers are in fact infiltrators.\u00a0\u00a0 According to Prime Minister Prime Benjamin Netanyahu, \u201cthe infiltrators conquered Eilat and Arad, and they are conquering Tel Aviv from north to south.\u201d He continues to say that the problem is persisting because Israel has become the only first-world country that people can walk to from Africa.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cA stream of refugees threaten to wash away our achievements and harm our existence as a Jewish and democratic state.”\u00a0 The overwhelming negative response of Israelies towards the migrants, according to advocates at Assaf,\u00a0 demonstrates that he has effectively convinced most Israelis to believe the migrants are there to steal jobs from the poor, make Tel Aviv a less safe city, and create misery for the people of Israel.<\/p>\n

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Policies have changed drastically over the past few months, becoming less accommodating to refugees and instituting more restrictions on their moevment, following immigration policy trends that are also visible in the Western world. \u00a0\u00a0The Ministry of Interior has added an explicit statement on the ‘conditional release’ visas of the asylum seekers that states that their visas do not permit their employment in Israel.\u00a0 Asylum seekers have to renew their visas every three months.\u00a0 The new statement on their visas has deterred many Israeli employers from hiring asylum seekers for fear that there will be punitive measures taken against them for doing so. This is very harmful to asylum seekers’ well-being as they are living in Israel without any support and finding menial jobs is their only way to support themselves in this country.<\/p>\n

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Maya Paley is an American Israeli currently working at ASSAF, (Hebrew acronym for \u201cOrganization for Aiding Refugees\u201d), an organization that \u201csimultaneously works to improve the treatment and response towards African refugees.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 According to Maya, many Israelis feel that organizations like ASSAF are promoting the deterioration of the Jewish character of the State of Israel by advocating on behalf of the rights of the refugees.\u00a0 She says that many of the refugees have expressed that they do not want to be in Israel and that they never planned on coming here, but circumstances brought them here.\u00a0 They were trying to escape to anywhere in the Western world, primarily to Europe or the US or Australia, but it’s become increasingly difficult to enter Europe through Africa. As a result Israel has become a more attractive option.\u00a0 Most of the refugees Maya works with hope to eventually be able to move to another country where they can undergo a proper procedure to determine their refugee status.<\/p>\n

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The Israeli government\u2019s solution to the problem is to build a closed refugee camp in the Negev desert to house the \u201cinfiltrators\u201d.\u00a0 The detention facility will provide shelter, food, and health services to asylum seekers entering the country.\u00a0 The government says it plans to complete the facility by 8-9 months from now.\u00a0\u00a0 Maya explains that at this time, they plan on actualizing the statement on the visas stating that asylum seekers cannot work in this country.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cEssentially, people will have a place to sleep, but they will be living in the middle of the desert in the south of the country and will not be permitted to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Many have been detained and treated as criminals without ever committing a crime in their respective countries. Many have been tortured, assaulted, raped, and shot, and the detention center in Israel would only serve to criminalize people who have not committed crime, according to Assaf.\u00a0 Maya says that \u201cthe main problem with detention in Israel is that because there is no\u00a0proper Refugee Status Determination procedure and so\u00a0few people are given refugee status here, asylum seekers can potentially be detained for indefinite periods of time, which is nothing short of inhumane.\u201d<\/p>\n

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According to Johannes the state has begun a more aggressive approach with the media, bringing increased attention to the \u201cproblem\u201d of African migrants through the use of propaganda.\u00a0\u00a0 More Israelis are speaking out against the refugees and calling them infiltrators because they are frustrated\u00a0that the asylum seekers are sleeping in the parks near their homes.\u00a0 Maya believes if more people knew the types of experiences the asylum seekers have been through, their opinions might be different.<\/p>\n

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Johannes says there is no response from the refugee community because they cannot do anything.\u00a0 \u201cMost of the people believe in two things, if we go back will spend 6 or 7 years in prison, torture, or death.\u00a0 We can either live the way we are living here, or resettle somewhere.\u00a0 They have to raise the question internationally and let the other people deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While Johannes has participated in two protests, he doesn\u2019t know what\u2019s going to come out of it.\u00a0 No one can work because Israel will not give the refugees work permits.\u00a0 The African community is dependent on sympathetic employers willing to pay them off the books, of which there are few, who will allow them to earn a small income.\u00a0 The general attitude has become one of defeat.\u00a0 People are giving up and losing hope all together.\u00a0 \u201cNo matter what you say nothing is going to change because that is the experience we had back at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Little is being publicized about the refugee situation occurring in Israel in news sources outside of the country.\u00a0 The pre-existing tensions and newsworthy issues in the region make it difficult for people to isolate one human rights violation from another in order to address an issue like the one surrounding the asylum seekers in South Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

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When asked about his family that is still living in Eritrea Johannes says he hopes they will understand what is going on and won\u2019t come to Israel.\u00a0 His sister arrived in Ethiopia two weeks ago and is now living in Mai Ayni in the north region of the country.\u00a0 I\u2019m told \u201cIn Ethiopia one things is guaranteed, that you will not have to go back to Eritrea.\u201d<\/p>\n