Israeli Prison
  • Front page
  • Home
  • Palestinians
    • Palestinians july 2020 >
      • Palestinians june 2020
      • Palestinians may 2020
      • Palestinians apr 2020
      • Palestinians mar 2020
      • Palestinians feb 2020
      • Palestinians jan 2020
  • Killed in prison
    • Killed in Prison 2012 >
      • Pictures Killed in prison
  • Israeli Court
    • Israeli Court 2019 >
      • Israeli Court 2018
      • Israeli Court 2017
      • Israeli Court 2016
      • Israeli Court 2015
      • Israeli Court 2014
      • Israeli Court 2013
      • Israeli Court 2012
      • Israeli Court 2011
      • Israeli Court 2009
  • Children
    • Children 2019 >
      • Children 2018
      • Children 2017
      • Children 2016
      • Children 2015
      • Children 2014
      • Children 2013
      • Women
  • Israelis
    • Israelis 2019 >
      • Israelis 2018
      • Israelis 2017
      • Israelis 2016
      • Israelis 2015
      • Israelis 2014
      • Israelis 2013
      • Israelis 2012
      • Israelis 2011
      • Israelis 2010
      • Israelis 2007
  • All Guilty!
  • Palestinian cases
  • No Justice for Murder in Cold Blood
  • Israeli Migrants and asylum seekers
    • Israeli Migrants and asylum seekers 2019 >
      • Israeli Migrants and asylum seekers 2015
      • Israeli Migrants and asylum seekers 2014
      • Israeli Migrants and asylum seekers 2013
  • Lieberman Trail
  • Shimon Peres
  • Netanyahu
  • Moshe Katsav
  • Eduh Barak
  • Ariel Sharon and sons
  • Olmert case
    • Olmert 2015
  • Pre-Oslo release
  • Pre-Oslo prisoners
  • Prisoners Swap
  • Palestinians 2019
    • Palestinians nov 2019
    • Palestinians oct 2019
    • Palestinians sept 2019
    • Palestinians aug 2019
    • Palestinians july 2019
    • Palestinians june 2019
    • Palestinians may 2019
    • Palestinians apr 2019
    • Palestinians mar 2019
    • Palestinians feb 2019
    • Palestinians jan 2019
  • Palestinians 2018
    • Palestinians nov 2018
    • Palestinians oct 2018
    • Palestinians sept 2018
    • Palestinians aug 2018
    • Palestinians july 2018
    • Palestinians june 2018
    • Palestinians may 2018
    • Palestinians apr 2018
    • Palestinians mar 2018
    • Palestinians feb 2018
    • Palestinians jan 2018
  • Palestinians 2017
    • Palestinians nov 2017
    • Palestinians oct 2017
    • Palestinians sept 2017
    • Palestinians aug 2017
    • Palestinians july 2017
    • Palestinians june 2017
    • Palestinians may 2017
    • Palestinians april 2017
    • Palestinians mar 2017
    • Palestinians feb 2017
    • Palestinians jan 2017
  • Palestinians 2016
    • Palestinians nov 2016
    • Palestinians oct 2016
    • Palestinians sept 2016
    • Palestinians aug 2016
    • Palestinians july 2016
    • Palestinians june 2016
    • Palestinians may 2016
    • Palestinians apr 2016
    • Palestinians mar 2016
    • Palestinians feb 2016
    • Palestinians jan 2016
  • Palestinians 2015
    • Palestinians nov 2015
    • Palestinians oct 2015
    • Palestinians sept 2015
    • Palestinians aug 2015
    • Palestinians july 2015
    • Palestinians june 2015
    • Palestinians may 2015
    • Palestinians apr 2015
    • Palestinians mar 2015
    • Palestinians feb 2015
    • Palestinians jan 2015
  • Palestinians 2014
    • 2014 nov
    • 2014 oct
    • 2014 sept
    • 2014 aug
    • 2014 july
    • 2014 june
    • 2014 may
    • 2014 apr
    • 2014 mar
    • 2014 feb
    • 2014 jan
  • Palestinians 2013
    • 2013 nov
    • 2013 oct
    • 2013 sept
    • 2013 aug
    • 2013 july
    • 2013 june
    • 2013 may
    • 2013 apr
    • 2013 march
    • 2013 feb
    • 2013 jan
  • Palestinians 2012
    • 2012 nov
30 june 2014
Hundreds of African immigrants in Israel on mass hunger strike
Picture
Hundreds of undocumented African migrants began a hunger strike on Monday after Israeli police forcibly broke up a sit-in they were staging along the Egyptian border.

Around 1,000 Africans, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, had marched Friday to the border and set up a makeshift camp to protest against their "inhuman and unlimited" detention at Holot facility.

Israel opened Holot detention camp in the southern Negev desert last year as part of a crackdown on illegal immigrants, with the facility open by day but locked down at night.

The demonstrators have said Holot is akin to prison and have also slammed what they said was Israel's failure to process their asylum requests.

They are calling on the UN refugee agency to intervene to allow them to immigrate to a third country.

But on Sunday evening, police and immigration officials "violently" broke up the border encampment and took the demonstrators to Saharonim, another detention camp for African immigrants, the demonstrators said in a statement.

"We have been taken to Saharonim prison. Some of us have injuries including to the face and limbs. In protest of this violence, and our ongoing imprisonment we have now started a hunger strike," it said.

"We call on UNHCR to find an urgent solution for this situation and to protect our rights as people who have come to Israel to seek asylum and shelter."

Sabine Hadad, spokeswoman for the Israeli immigration authority confirmed that 779 people had been evacuated during the arrest operation.

"There were clashes with a small minority of demonstrators. Five of them and five police were very lightly injured," she told AFP.

Punishment likely

"Each one will be brought before a committee to explain why they violated the rules," she said, indicating the inmates are required to sign in twice during the day, and to spend the night in the facility.

"They could face up to three months imprisonment for this offence," she said.

Under legislation passed by parliament in December 2013, Israel can detain undocumented migrants for up to a year without trial in move slammed by UNHCR which said Israel could be in breach of international law.

The law was the latest in a series of measures aimed at cracking down on the numbers of Africans entering the country illegally, which Israel says poses a threat to the state's Jewish character.

Last year, Israel launched a crackdown on what it said were 60,000 undocumented African migrants, rounding up and deporting 3,920 by the end of the year, and building a hi-tech fence along the border with Egypt.

The UN says there are some 53,000 refugees and asylum-seekers in Israel, most of whom entered via the desert border with Egypt.

Of that number, some 36,000 come from Eritrea where the regime has been repeatedly accused of widespread human rights abuses. Another 14,000 are from conflict-torn Sudan.

28 june 2014
African immigrants in Israel protest near Egypt border
Picture
Nearly 1,000 illegal African immigrants in Israel on Friday staged a march towards the southern border with Egypt to protest against living conditions in their internment camp, public radio reported.

Israeli soldiers stopped the demonstrators, most from Eritrea and Sudan, nearly 300 meters from the border, it added.

The protesters, who are allowed out during the day, said in a statement that their march was in protest against their "inhuman and unlimited" detention in the Holot camp.

Holot houses some 2,300 immigrants.

The demonstrators were demanding to be able to leave Israel, and called on the UN refugee agency and the international community to take charge of their cases so they can immigrate to a third country.

Picture
The Israeli authorities require undocumented immigrants who have been in Israel for more than five years to live in Holot.

One demonstrator said the authorities present it as an "open facility," but it was "actually a prison."

Under legislation passed in December 2013, authorities can detain illegal immigrants for up to a year without trial.

In February, Haaretz newspaper reported that Israel had started flying undocumented immigrants to Uganda with the authorization of that country's authorities.

The Israeli population and immigration office said that in late 2013 there were 53,646 African immigrants in Israel, 35,987 of whom were Eritrean, 13,249 Sudanese and the remainder from other countries.

Israel's construction of an electric fence along its border with Egypt has reduced the number of immigrants arriving illegally through the Sinai Peninsula to almost none.

Thousands of African immigrants rallied last year against the authorities' refusal to grant them refugee status. Video - More pictures

19 feb 2014
Israel sends African asylum seekers to Uganda
Picture
Israel has started a secret operation to send African asylum seekers to Uganda, a senior government official said. The official said that in the past month dozens of asylum seekers agreed to be moved there.

A Sudanese citizen, who left Israel for Uganda last month, said he was on a plane with six other Sudanese asylum seekers. They had all agreed to be moved to Uganda in return for being released from Saharonim detention center, Negev.

The man also said he had received $3,500 for leaving the country as part of Israel's "voluntary departure" procedure.

Haaretz quoted the director of the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, Reut Michaeli, as saying on Wednesday, "The State of Israel is proposing to asylum seekers a return to Uganda with no assurances or official agreement," She added that as far as her organisation knows, the asylum seekers will not receive legal status in Uganda and they will not have any papers allowing them to leave if they want to.

"In addition to all that, it is known that Uganda deports asylum seekers to their countries of origin," Michaeli pointed out.

Israel did not inform the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights that asylum seekers were being made to leave noting that the UN refuses to consider the idea of giving people a choice between long term imprisonment and returning to their country as this is a matter of personal freedom

Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar said on Wednesday that it was projected that this month some 1,500 asylum seekers would be leaving Israel, compared to 765 in January, 325 in December and 63 in November.

Meanwhile, hundreds of asylum seekers marched in protest of the new procedure, from the Holot detention centre in the desert to Tel Aviv. They are calling for the release of all the detainees and asking that their asylum applications be processed.

According to the Population and Immigration Authority, as of September 2013 there were 53,646 asylum seekers from Africa in Israel, including 13,249 Sudanese and 35,987 Eritreans.

8 jan 2014
‘Israel opens migrant detention camp’
Picture
African refugees leave the Holot detention center in southern Israel on December 21, 2013

Israel has recently opened a new detention camp designed to hold African asylum seekers until they can be sent back to their home countries, a report says.
 
The so-called "open" detention facility, named Holot, was opened last month and is located dozens of kilometers from civilization near the neighboring Saharonim prison in southern Israel’s Negev Desert, Qatar's state-run broadcaster, Al Jazeera reported.

The detention center is estimated to hold about 2,000 people who are allowed to leave but must report in three times a day and return for an evening curfew.

However, the nearest city is Beersheba, which is 70 kilometers (50 miles) away, leaving few options for work.

On Tuesday, tens of thousands of workers, who are mostly asylum seekers, demonstrated in Tel Aviv for a third straight day of protests to denounce Israel’s long-term detention of migrants.

Most of the Africans who have crossed into occupied territories in recent years are from South Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Israel’s so-called anti-infiltration law allows it to imprison asylum seekers for a long time without charge or deport them to their countries where their lives are often in danger.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already said that protests will not influence Israel. Tel Aviv is a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which protects refugees from deportation to countries in which their lives are in danger.

African migrants to march on al-Quds
Thousands of African migrant workers in Israel are planning to stage a march to al-Quds (Jerusalem) in protest at Tel Aviv's refugee policies.

The plan came on Wednesday, a day after tens of thousands of workers, who are mostly asylum seekers, demonstrated in Tel Aviv for a third straight day of protests to denounce Israel’s long-term detention of migrants.

On Tuesday, the protesters held banners reading, "We are refugees" and "No more prison" as they marched on Western embassies and the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Most of the Africans who have crossed into occupied territories in recent years are from South Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

In a Sunday press release, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) slammed Israel’s policy on the African migrants, particularly the new amendment to Tel Avis’s “anti-infiltration law.”

Israel’s so-called anti-infiltration law allows it to imprison asylum seekers for a long time without charge or deport them to their countries where their lives are often in danger.

The agency called on Tel Aviv to consider alternatives to its current “warehousing” of migrants, in likely reference to the Israeli practice of holding African migrants in special facilities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already said that protests will not influence Israel. Tel Aviv is a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which protects refugees from deportation to countries in which their lives are in danger.
7 jan 2014
African asylum seekers in third day of Israel protests
Picture
Thousands of African asylum seekers demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Tuesday for a third straight day of protests against Israel's immigration policies.

Migrants, most of them fleeing Eritrea or Sudan, held banners that read "We are refugees," and "No more prison," as they marched on Western embassies and the offices of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Israel's commercial capital was the scene of race riots in 2012 and the rightwing government has vowed to step up the repatriation of illegal immigrants, saying they pose a threat to the state's Jewish character.

Nearly 60,000 managed to slip across the desert border with Egypt

before Israel completed a high-tech barrier last year.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the protests of the asylum seekers will make no difference to his government's tough stand.

"Just as we've succeeded in blocking off illegal infiltrations thanks to the security fence, we're determined to send back those who made it in before the border was closed," he told members of his rightwing Likud party on Monday.

Under legislation passed last month, authorities can detain illegal immigrants entering Israel for up to a year without trial.

The government has opened a sprawling detention facility in the Negev desert to house both new entrants and immigrants already in the country deemed to have disturbed public order.

The UNHCR has condemned Israel for ignoring the reasons why asylum seekers have fled their countries of of origin and for failing to provide "those with protection needs" with "access to refugee status determination."
6 jan 2014
African migrants march on foreign embassies in Israel
Thousands of African migrants in Israel have marched to the embassies of the United States and a number of European countries on the second day of their mass strike.

The protesters marched in Tel Aviv in Monday to demand asylum and work rights from Israeli authorities.

The migrants, who are mostly asylum seekers, also want an end to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy of crackdown on workers, which usually results in their incarceration.

The rally came a day after more than 30,000 African asylum seekers attended a demonstration in Tel Aviv to condemn Israel’s long-term detention of undocumented migrants.

The African migrants launched a three-day strike in several Israeli cities on Sunday.

Most of the Africans who have crossed into Israel in recent years are from South Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia. Their presence has sparked tensions with Israelis who accuse them of changing the Jewish demography of some neighborhoods.

In a Sunday press release, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) slammed Israel’s policy on the African migrants, particularly the new amendment to Tel Avis’s “anti-infiltration law.”

Israel’s so-called anti-infiltration law allows it to imprison asylum seekers for a long time without charge or deport them to their countries where their
lives are often in danger.

The UNHCR said Israel’s new legislation is a violation of the spirit of the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention, which protects the African refugees from deportation to countries where their lives are imperiled.

The agency called on Tel Aviv to consider alternatives to its current “warehousing” of migrants, in likely reference to the Israeli practice of holding African migrants in special facilities.
5 jan 2014
10,000s African migrants hold demo in Tel Aviv
Picture
Tens of thousands of African asylum seekers hold a demonstration in Tel Aviv on January 5, 2014

Tens of thousands of African migrants in Israel have held their biggest demonstration yet over Tel Aviv’s refugee policies.

According to police in Tel Aviv, more than 30,000 asylum seekers attended the demonstration on Sunday to condemn Israel’s long-term detention of undocumented immigrants.

The rally is the latest step in a movement by African refugees who protest against Israel’s implementation of an anti-infiltration law, which allows the

regime to jail asylum seekers for a long time without any charges or deport them to their countries.

Israel is pursuing this policy despite being a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Treaty, which protects the African refugees from deportation to countries in which their lives are in danger.

Similar demonstrations were also held against the policy on Saturday.

The demonstrators called for the release of all imprisoned refugees and for the recognition of their rights.

In mid-December last year, Tel Aviv began operating a new detention facility for the African refugees in the Negev desert.
Human Right Watch has said that “Israel should end its unlawful detention policy and release all asylum seekers.”

Meanwhile, a recent report says Israel has the lowest living standards among the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In its economic survey for 2013, the organization said in December last year that Israel’s “average living standards remain well below the top-ranking OECD countries,” adding, “The rate of relative poverty [in Israel] is the highest in the OECD area....”

The report warned against severe deterioration of living conditions in Israel, saying, “The incomes of about one in five Israeli households fall below the poverty line.”

Many Israelis have been migrating in recent months to Germany and the United States. It is said that the Israelis are leaving Israel on economic grounds.

High taxes and low salaries have had adverse effects on the lives of Israelis, specifically the middle class, in recent years.

UN slams Israel for asylum seeker policy
Page:  2 - 1
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.