Press Release - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Asylum Seekers Strike for Rights - To Begin on Sunday January 5 2014
January 4, 2014
The communities of asylum seekers in Israel are elevating their struggle for recognition of their rights as refugees. In an emergency general assembly of asylum seeker communities this evening (Saturday Jan 5), a general strike of asylum seekers will be announced throughout Israel to begin tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow, Sunday January 5 at 11:00AM striking asylum seekers and their supporters will take part in a rally in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. On Monday the asylum seekers will turn toward UNHCR and international missions in Israel asking them to call upon Israel to take responsibility for her asylum seekers and to fulfill her obligations under the International Convention on the Status of Refugees and international law.
We asylum seekers living in Israel are protesting against the arbitrary and indefinite imprisonment without trial of asylum seekers in desert detention centers. The Holot “Open” Detention Facility to which more asylum seekers are sent now each day is a prison in every sense of the word. The government of Israel must cease its inhumane policies toward asylum seekers, must overturn the “Anti-Infiltration Law”, release those innocents who are imprisoned, end the violent arrests of asylum seekers, and develop a just and clear policy regarding our status in Israel.
Our strike is not an act against our employers but rather an act of protest. We are aware of the risks of such an act, that we may lose our jobs and sources of income. We are taking this step in order to make one thing clear to Israeli society: we fled to Israel because of dangers to our lives in our countries of origin and we are requesting political asylum. Like any other human being we must work in order to live a life of dignity, however work is not the reason we came to Israel.
Over the last few years, the government of Israel has systematically incited against us. Elected officials and government ministers have falsely called us “infiltrators, “illegal immigrants” or “work immigrants” who are a burden to Israeli society - all this while our requests for asylum have not been evaluated in a just and fair manner and our true status in Israel has yet to be determined. We call upon the Israeli public not to follow the calumnies spread by the Israeli government. We call upon the residents and citizens of Israel to support our basic demands: to evaluate our asylum requests in a transparent and just manner, to grant us a clear and just legal status, and to grant us basic human rights and social rights including access to health and welfare services so that we can live here in dignity until we are able to return to our homeland in peace.
We are very aware of the distress of the residents of south Tel Aviv. We live among them, we see the neglect in the streets, the disproportionate growth in the number of residents in such a small area. We hear their cries and we understand and agree with their desire to not have to be the only ones to absorb asylum seekers into their neighborhoods. Their rights and dignity as residents of Israel have been hurt as a direct results of the government’s policy of dropping us in south Tel Aviv and abandoning us with no means for survival.
In our protest we also appeal to the UN Commission in Israel and in Geneva: do not abandon us under the cruel hand of the government of Israel, a government that breaks daily its international and legal commitments. It is your obligation to ensure that Israel fulfills her commitments as per the International Convention on the Status of Refugees and international law. We appeal to the nations of the world, that are also coping with waves of immigration and refugees, to now allow the government of Israel to imprison us, to treat us as if we were criminals. Our demand is for recognition of our rights as refugees, for recognition that we are not criminals but merely human beings seeking protection and refuge.
Bsow, an asylum seeker from Sudan: “For years President Omar El-Bashir of Sudan has been massacring my people in the Nuba mountains. They bomb us from above and kill us every day. I was part of the rebel movement but to return to Sudan today would be a death sentence for me. For years I haven’t seen my family and my greatest dream is to seem them close again. I am persecuted in my home country and am seeking asylum in Israel. I am not a criminal and I do not understand why Israel wants to put me in prison.
Kidane, an asylum seeker from Eritrea: “We fled from the unconscionable dictatorial regime in Eritrea. We are refugees seeking recognition, human rights, and freedom. We are asking Israel to be true to its democratic ideals and to treat us as we deserve to be treated, as human beings who yearn to be free.”
Didan, an asylum seeker from Sudan: “These laws against refugees are laws against humanity. The protection of the rights of refugees is in the interest of all humankind, and all the more so for the State of Israel, the State of the Jewish People.”
To the People of Israel - The African Asylum Seekers Community in Israel
https://thevoiceforum.org/node/3437
For more information, or to arrange interviews with representatives of the asylum seeker communities:
Ayala Hananel - 054-6622842 - ayalahann@gmail.com
Orit Marom - 054-2011666 - maromorit@gmail.com