Flouting International Law: Violating the Human Rights of Asylum Seekers, Including Victims of Torture and Human Trafficking, in and en route to Israel – Laurie Lijnders

Laurie Lijnders
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel

My 15-year-old brother Habtom disappeared after he was released from an underground cell in the trafficking compound of Abu Khalid, where he was tortured for three months until we paid US$35,000 for his release, a young Eritrean woman told me during a visit to her home in a Tel Aviv suburb. Habtom, who fled forced military conscription and institutionalized slavery in Eritrea, was kidnapped in April 2012 from Shagarab refugee camp in Eastern Sudan by Rishyada tribesmen. Through a well-organized network of human traffickers operating in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, and Israel, he was transferred to the northern Sinai desert, near the Egyptian border with Israel.

The Israeli Ministry of Interior estimates that 60,000 African asylum seekers, mainly from Eritrea and Sudan, have arrived in Israel in recent years via the country’s southern border. According to Israeli human rights organizations, arriving asylum seekers face serious rights violations on both sides of the border.

News Round Up In-Brief

U.S. News

• Beginning August 15, undocumented youth can apply for a two-year reprieve from deportation under Obama’s “deferred action” initiative to allow the population of would-be DREAMers to work legally and live openly in the U.S. Responses to the new policy seem mostly optimistic, but since deferrals must be renewed every two years and each application induces a $465 fee, officials are unsure how many applications to expect at the start. In anticipation of the application process, a host of commercial scams offering legal assistance have appeared around the country. A New York Times editorial points to fraud by legal consultants as a major problem, which could make applicants rejected for falsified paperwork more vulnerable to deportation.
• Advocates have brought attention to the host of mental health issues faced by undocumented youth, including the uncertainties surrounding the new deferred action policy.

News Round Up In-Brief

 U.S. News

• The “Undocubus,” a bus full of unauthorized im/migrants heading the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina, has started its multi-state journey. The bus will make stops in states that have passed anti-immigrant laws or stringent immigrant policing laws.
• Recent protests and firings of immigrant workers at Palermo’s Pizza factory show immigrant workers’ vulnerability, and highlight the power employers have in controlling workers’ organizing efforts in settings where unauthorized im/migrants are present.
• The Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as the 2010 healthcare reform law, has resulted in cutting aid that hospitals use to treat unauthorized im/migrants.   These cuts have made hospitals concerned for how they will provide emergency care to unauthorized im/migrant patients.