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Africa: Africans Lost in 'The Promised Land'
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Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)
15 April 2008
Posted to the web 15 April 2008
Zack Baddorf
Tel Aviv
The young man who agreed to be called Hamed has come a long way to do nothing. The Ivoirian would prefer to work but, after sneaking into Israel from Egypt about a month ago, he's got nothing better to do than sit in a park everyday in central Tel Aviv, wait, and hope for a government decision on his refugee application.
Hamed, 22, who asked to remain anonymous fearing retribution from the Israeli government, joins about 7,000 African refugees who have arrived in the Jewish state since 2005. Steven Wolfson from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Tel Aviv told IPS that about 2,200 Africans have arrived in the past three months, creating a "crisis situation".
Hamed said he fled Cote d'Ivoire because his father was murdered and he feared the killers would come after him. His family spent about 3,000 dollars to get him to Egypt and then paid another 800 dollars in late February for a Bedouin smuggler to sneak him into Israel's southern Negev region. After travelling for three days by jeep and on foot through the Sinai desert, he heard a gunshot along the border.
"I was thinking at that (moment), maybe that's an Egyptian. They are going to kill me or not?"
His fears are not without reason. Since the start of the year, Egyptian border guards have killed 10 African asylum-seekers trying to enter Israel, including two Ivoirians.
Amnesty International has called on Cairo to investigate the killings. The human rights organisation claims the Israeli government has pressured Egypt to reduce the number of Africans entering Israel illegally. Ilan Lonai, director of Activism and Campaigns for Amnesty's Tel Aviv office, told IPS the result has been the disproportionate use of force by Egyptian border guards.
"When somebody is asked to stop and he's not threatening you, there's no reason in the world to shoot him, especially people who are running away from you," Lonai said. "There are different ways of stopping them."
Most of the asylum seekers are from Eritrea and Sudan. Human Rights Watch reports that thousands of young men have fled Eritrea to avoid "endless military conscription." The U.S.-based group has documented torture against military deserters there.
In Sudan, 2.5 million people have died in the country's 22-year-long civil war, and another 2.5 million have been displaced in the western region of Darfur alone since 2003, according to HRW. Sudanese who visit the Jewish state risk execution if they return home.
Lonai says Israel should not be using Egypt to stop people that need protection from entering the country.
"This is a very sad issue in a country that has built itself on this notion of protecting refugees to so easily forget all of our history and push it all away," said Lonai, referring to the creation of the Zionist state after the Nazi Holocaust nearly 60 years ago. "This is a very, very sad issue."
The "main problem", according to Shevy Korzen, executive director of the Tel Aviv-based Hotline for Migrant Workers, is Israel doesn't have an established system in place to manage incoming refugees. Korzen told IPS that Israel needs to set clear guidelines and provide appropriate protection to refugees.
"If someone reaches the border and asks for asylum, then according to international law their claim has to be assessed," she said. "Israel cannot say, 'Oh, we're ok. We're not shooting. We're just asking the Egyptians to do this.' This is wrong."
When it comes to deciding who can stay and who will be sent south, back to Africa, Korzen said, Tel Aviv's decisions are made "ad hoc". Korzen cited the example of Israel's August 2007 return of 48 Sudanese asylum seekers to Egypt, which then sent 20 back to Sudan.
When the refugees first started arriving in Israel a few years ago, the State granted temporary residence to 600 Sudanese from Darfur, and gave work permits to 2,000 Eritreans.
About 5,500 African asylum-seekers crossed the 160-mile wide Israel-Egypt border last year alone, according to UNHCR. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described the refugee influx at a Feb. 24 Cabinet meeting as a "tsunami that could grow." Olmert ordered his ministers to immediately deport about 4,500 "illegal infiltrators", according to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release.
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But this hasn't happened. Instead, Tel Aviv decided in March to take over the evaluation of claims of Sudanese and Eritrean refugees from UNHCR. Wolfson said the Israeli Ministry of Interior is registering but not yet assessing the claims "due primarily to the volume of them." Africans from elsewhere, like the Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria, are still evaluated by the UN, which submits its recommendation to an Israeli committee. While Israel has no quotas, typically the committee grants asylum to about 10-20 Africans a year, Wolfson said.
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