From the African Refugee Development Center:
Israel is a reluctant host to 46,437 African asylum seekers predominantly from Eritrea (73%) and Sudan (19%) and a small minority (8%) arriving from several other African countries. The state policy toward asylum seekers (particularly Eritreans and Sudanese) is one of temporary non-deportation, officially referred to as “group protection.” Asylum seekers in Israel are denied basic rights and access to social services and the government of Israel has employed various policies to pressure asylum seekers to leave – including indefinite arbitrary detention, refusal to accept and review asylum claims, limitation of access to basic state-sponsored services, incitement and coerced repatriation. The Supreme Court of Israel has, in two distinct decisions, affirmed that the State’s treatment of African asylum seekers is unacceptable and violates fundamental laws concerning human dignity and liberty. The Court insisted on a comprehensive policy that seriously tackles this issue, but the government remains noncompliant.
Prevention of Infiltration Law
The Prevention of Infiltration Law was passed and implemented in the 1950s, to address Palestinian refugees who re-entered Israel after the establishment of the state of Israel. Whether seeking to return to their homes or to commit terrorist attacks, these individuals were identified as “infiltrators,” highlighting the illegal nature of their border-crossing and the perceived danger they posed to national security. Since 2008, the government of Israel began to apply this term to African asylum seekers and actively sought to utilize the Law against them. In the subsequent years, the Israeli Knesset worked diligently to draft a new amendment to the Law that would officially include African asylum seekers. In 2011 the Knesset successfully passed Amendment III (Amendment I and II referred to Palestinian populations) and implemented it in 2012.
