- Update info:
- 11 May 2018 (Suspended)
- Latest info:
- 31 Mar 2018
- Country:
- ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES／PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
- Subject:
- Thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers, including “Tesfai” (not his real name)
Gender m/f: male
- Period:
- 11 Jun 2018
- Distribution date:
- 31 Mar 2018
- UA No:
- 064/2018
Thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers are at risk of either being forced to go to Rwanda or Uganda, where their protection is not guaranteed, or being indefinitely detained in Israel. While some are already detained, the Israeli authorities have given others until early April to leave the country or be detained.
On 1 January, the Israeli Population, Immigration and Border Authority (PIBA) published a new policy (the “Procedure for Deportation to Third Countries”) under the Israeli Law of Entry. According to the new policy, Eritrean and Sudanese single men who either had not applied for asylum before 1 January or had applied but been rejected would be asked to leave the country by early April. Those who agree to leave are given US$3,500 and a ticket to either their country of origin or an unnamed “third country”. Those who refuse face indefinite detention. The Israeli government claims the scheme facilitates “voluntary departures” of irregular migrants. In fact, most of those deported have been denied a fair asylum procedure in Israel. Amnesty International considers them to be asylum-seekers or refugees and their deportations to be unlawful under international law.
Israel has allegedly reached agreements with two countries – widely understood to be Uganda and Rwanda – where deportees from Eritrea and Sudan are transferred. However, Uganda and Rwanda deny the existence of the agreements and the Israeli government considers any information about the arrangements to be classified.
The Israeli authorities have been issuing deportation notices to asylum-seekers who were already in detention since 4 February, under the new “Procedure for Deportation to Third Countries” policy. There are 280 asylum-seekers already in detention who have been issued with such notices. They are being told that they must leave within two months of the first deportation notice given to them or remain in detention. Since the announcement of the new policy, 500 Eritreans and Sudanese men have left Israel or signed up to leave.
“Tesfai” (not his real name), a 29-year-old Eritrean asylum-seeker, had his asylum claim rejected without explanation. He was arrested in November 2017 for not having a valid visa. After 100 days in prison, he was told to leave Israel to go to Rwanda. When he refused, he was detained under the Law of Entry for not co-operating with his removal and remains in prison to date.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Most of the Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers currently at risk of deportation reached Israel before 2013, when Israel closed its border with Egypt. Many of them survived experiences in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt where they were held by traffickers against their will and tortured or otherwise ill-treated and suffer now from physical and psychological trauma.
The transfer of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers to African countries began in 2013. According to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, some 4,000 Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers were deported between December 2013 and June 2017. Although the African countries have not officially been named, testimonies from asylum-seekers deported from Israel confirm that they are Rwanda and Uganda. Both countries have denied having entered into an agreement with Israel to receive such asylum-seekers either verbally or in writing.
Whether or not the agreements exist, the deportations are unlawful because they violate the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the transfer of anyone to a place where they would be at risk of serious human rights violations, or where they would not be protected against such a transfer later.
In order for the obligation of non-refoulement to be fulfilled, the risk of human rights violations upon transfer must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, considering the individual circumstances of each person concerned. The sending state, in particular, must evaluate not only each individual’s risk of human rights violations upon transfer to the “third country”, but also their risk of onward return from the “third country” to another country where the person would be at risk (“chain” or “indirect” refoulement). The fact that the third country is a party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees is not sufficient to exclude the risk of “chain” refoulement.
In addition to being unlawful, the deportations are a way for Israel to abdicate its responsibility towards refugees and asylum-seekers under its jurisdiction and to shift it to less wealthy countries with bigger refugee populations. Israel hosts 44,600 refugees and asylum-seekers, a manageable population for a wealthy country. By contrast, Rwanda hosts more than three times the refugee population of Israel; Uganda’s refugee population is more than 20 times that of Israel.
The deportations by the Israeli authorities are based on the premise that the deportees either never sought asylum or did seek asylum but did not qualify for it. However, Israel’s dysfunctional asylum system calls the premise into serious question. Out of 15,200 Eritrean and Sudanese nationals who submitted asylum applications between 2013 and 2017, only 12 were recognized as refugees following a refugee status determination procedure, which is less than 0.5%. Over the past decade, only 0.1% of Eritrean asylum-seekers have been recognized as refugees in Israel. By comparison, the rate of recognition of Eritrean nationals who applied for refugee status in the EU in 2016 was 92.5%.
UA: 64/18 Index: MDE 15/8126/2018 Issue Date: 28 March 2018
- Update info:
- 11 May 2018 (Suspended)
- Latest info:
- 31 Mar 2018
- Country:
- ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES／PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
- Subject:
- Thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers
Gender m/f: male
- Period:
- 11 Jun 2018
- Distribution date:
- 11 May 2018
- UA No:
- 064/2018
The Israeli government has declared that it will not pursue forcible deportations of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers to third countries under the Israeli ‘Procedure for Deportation to Third Countries’. This follows the release of 280 asylum-seekers who had been detained as a result of the policy, after an order by the High Court of Justice.
Israeli authorities have now declared that they will not forcibly deport Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers from Israel to an African “third country”. They will no longer be issuing deportation notices and conducting deportation hearings. However, the government has declared that Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers, considered by Israel to be “infiltrators”, will still be encouraged to “voluntarily” leave Israel.
The Israeli authorities should ensure that Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers are provided with documentation allowing them to live and work regularly in Israel and protecting them from unlawful detention and deportation. The authorities should under no circumstance pressure African asylum-seekers to “voluntarily” leave Israel when the time comes to renew their visas, in accordance with their international obligations not to transfer anyone to a country where they would be at risk of serious human rights violations, or where they would not be protected against such transfer.
From 4 February 2018, 280 Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers who were already held in Holot detention centre, located in the Negev/Naqab desert, were issued deportation notices under Israel’s new ‘Procedure for Deportation to Third Countries’. Having refused to leave Israel, they were then detained in the Saharonim prison while awaiting deportation. All the 280 asylum-seekers were released between 2 and 15 April 2018, as ordered by the High Court of Justice, in the context of a case on the legality of Israel’s deportations to unspecified “third countries” in Africa, widely believed to be Uganda and Rwanda. The High Court ordered the government to stop the deportations after it failed to provide additional information on the deportation agreements. However, the 280 asylum-seekers were only granted one-month visas, which forbid them from working and living in the seven largest cities in Israel.
Those released included “Tesfai” (not his real name), a 29-year-old Eritrean asylum-seeker who had his asylum claim rejected without explanation. He was arrested in November 2017 for not having a valid visa. After 100 days in detention, he was told to leave Israel to go to Rwanda. When he refused, he was detained under the new policy introduced by the Israeli Population, Immigration and Border Authority (PIBA) for not cooperating with his removal.
Thank you to all those who sent appeals. No further action is requested from the UA network.
This is the first update of UA 64/18. Further information: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/8126/2018/en/
Further information on UA: 64/18 Index: MDE 15/8240/2018 Issue Date: 8 May 2018
