Plight of Sudanese Refugees in Israel Revealed at D.C. Presentation
Plight of Sudanese Refugees in Israel Revealed at D.C. Presentation
Washington, D.C. (DATE) — Southern Sudanese Voice for Freedom (SSVF), a Washington based advocacy group, presented its findings on the plight of Sudanese refugees in Israel at a panel discussion held February 11, 2009. The presentation – the first of its kind on this topic in the U.S. – addressed highlights of a fact-finding trip members of the SSVF took to Israel last spring. A complete printed report on that trip is forthcoming.
In 2008 there were 2,135 Sudanese asylum seekers registered in Israel, after encountering violence at the Sudan-Egyptian border while fleeing from Sudan’s brutal north-south civil war and genocide in Darfur. Until recently, Sudanese had been arrested upon arrival in Israel – largely because Sudan and Israel do not have diplomatic relations – charged with illegal entry, and put under detention for three months to three years. While some Sudanese now have temporary visas allowing them to work, and 600 refugees from Darfur have been given permanent residency with full citizenship rights, there is a proposed new law that would allow the detention of illegal entrants into Israel for up to seven years.
Israel attorney Tally Kritzman, currently a Hauser Research Scholar at New York University School of Law, pointed out that Israel reserves the right “not to absorb into Israel, or to grant a permit to enable the stay in Israel, of subjects of enemy or hostile states-as determined from time to time by the relevant authorities, and for as long as such states poses the status. The issue of release of such persons on bail will be examined on case-by-case basis, in accordance with the prevailing circumstances, and security considerations.”
Sudanese activist Simon Deng maintained that granting permanent status to a small number of refugees from Darfur, while denying status to the rest and excluding those from Southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains and other parts of Sudan, has brought division and misunderstanding among the refugee population in Israel.
SSVF/Sudanese refugees in Israel/News Release 2-2-2
SSVF president Jimmy Mulla called on all signatories to the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, to cooperate with the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) and to adhere to internationally recognized standards for the economic and social rights of refugees.
SSVF has already been instrumental in convincing 34 members of Congress to appeal directly to Egypt through diplomatic means to ensure humane practices toward immigrant and refugee populations at the Egyptian-Israeli border crossing.
Other organizations and government agencies represented at the February 11 presentation were USAID, Ant-Deformation League, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Hebrew Immigration and Aids Society, Beja Congress, the RFK Center for Human Rights, Nubia Project, and the Sudanese Workers Union.