To the People of Israel,
In the last few weeks, a range of unprecedented policy changes towards African asylum seekers and refugees have caused us to take drastic measures by striking from our work to display our discontent, frustration and fear.
About 50,000 African asylum seekers and refugees live in Israel. We have fled persecution, forced military conscription, dictatorship, civil wars and genocide. Instead of being treated as refugees by the government of Israel, we have been treated as criminals.
On December 11, 2013 the government of Israel passed a new amendment to the Prevention of Infiltration law, in response to the recent High Court of Justice (HCJ) decision that overturned previous amendments to the law. In its decision, the Court called the law "a grave and disproportionate abuse of the right to personal freedom” and against Israel’s basic laws.
The new amendments allow for one year of closed detention followed by indefinite detention without judicial review in what Israel calls an open facility and what should be called a prison, named Holot, in the Negev desert far from population centers. Individuals held in Holot are banned from working and are subjected to roll call three times each day, restricting travel outside of the immediate area. Holot is closed at night. The law gives the staff of the facility the ability to demand identification as well as to search, prevent entry, apprehend and remove individuals. If an individual breaches or is accused of intending to breach a condition of the ‘open’ facility, or is alleged to endanger the security of public peace, he can be transferred to a closed prison for 3-12 months.
Inspectors from the Population, Immigration and Border Authority (PIBA) have begun to arrest and detain hundreds of asylum seekers in Tel Aviv. In the last week of December 2013, PIBA announced its plan to require thousands of asylum seekers and refugees to register at Holot within 30 days. Despite assurances given by the Ministry of Interior that families would not be separated, tens of men with wives and children have been summoned. Panic has spread among the asylum seekers community in Israel, as immigration authorities have increasingly limited the ability to renew visas, leaving people vulnerable to losing their jobs and being arrested.
In the past two weeks, thousands of African asylum seekers and refugees took to the street in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to march for freedom, to oppose arrests, imprisonment and the disregard for refugee rights. In another appeal to the Israeli government and the international community, we are organizing a three day strike from 5 to 7 January 2014 to demonstrate our fear of imprisonment and deportation and create a pressure that will cause the government to change their inhumane policies. Instead of detaining and deporting us, Israel should be respecting our basic human rights as refugees.
We ask the Government of Israel to:
1. Cancel the new amendment to the Prevention of Infiltration Law; stop all arrests; and release all asylum seekers and refugees from prisons.
2. Start respecting the rights of refugees, including social rights, health and welfare benefits.
3. Check individual asylum claims in a fair and transparent way.
We kindly ask you to support us in our struggle for refugee rights. Feel free to join us over the next few days, for more details check us out on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/624571827603397/625384244188822/?notif_…
Thank you for your understanding.
Kind Regards,
African Asylum Seekers Community in Israel