Despite changing criteria: less than 3% of Eritrean asylum seekers approved - Walla! news

2021-05-05T02:37:03.058Z

Despite the new criteria set by the state in 2019, only 19 Eritreans have been recognized as refugees in the last two years as part of the request for further examination

news
News in Israel
Society and welfare

Despite changing criteria: Less than 3% of Eritrean asylum seekers have been approved

About 700 applications have been rejected since it was determined in 2019 that a defection may serve as a ground for granting refugee status if there is an ideological dimension while only 19 have been approved.

About 12,000 applications have not yet been decided.

This week, the High Court ruled that the state must decide on the matter of some 2,400 asylum seekers from Sudan by the end of the year - or give them temporary residency.

Despite the announcement of its closure, the vaccine complex for the foreign population in Tel Aviv will continue to operate

To the full article

for further reading

The Eritrean army terrorizes Tigray, and forcibly repatriates refugees
Petition to the High Court: Extend the residence visas of foreign workers in the construction industry
High Court for the State: The possibility of purchasing health insurance for their children must be returned to the disabled
The technology in shoes that will save you from back and knee pain

Only 32 Eritreans have received refugee status over the years (Photo: Reuven Castro)

According to data from the Population Authority, there are currently about 21,750 Eritreans in Israel. Israel grants them, as well as Sudanese citizens, temporary protection and pursues a policy of non-exclusion due to the situation in the countries of origin. So a deportation order stands against them, but its execution is delayed, and they are entitled to a temporary residence visa. The state allows them to work, even though it is not included in the visa framework. For many years they could not apply for asylum at all, and some waited years for their application to be considered.

In 2013, the state ruled that defection did not constitute grounds for asylum and accordingly rejected thousands of asylum applications from Eritrean citizens. But in 2018, the Jerusalem Court of Appeals ruled that a defection from the Eritrean army could be a reason for granting refugee status, and in July 2019, the state announced that it had set new criteria for examining the applications.

The state has ruled that desertions should not be seen as a single sufficient reason for approving an asylum application, but rather additional conditions should be considered.

Among other things, it was determined that an application for asylum would be approved if the defection has "a continuous, clear and distinct ideological dimension, and as such it can be seen as political persecution within the meaning of the Refugee Convention."

At the time, the Population and Immigration Authority said that there were about 3,000 applications from Eritreans that had been rejected, and tens of thousands that had not yet been decided.

"The minister's decision not to adopt the committee's recommendation is exceptional."

Deri (Photo: Flash 90, Yonatan Zindel)

One of the Eritrean citizens who tried to obtain refugee status based on the new criteria is Jonas Tekla, 30. He was imprisoned there because he opposed the regime and did not want to enlist, was tortured and forcibly recruited. After being imprisoned he was beaten and injured in the eye, but later managed to escape. In June 2012, he arrived in Israel, and in January 2013, he submitted an application for asylum, which was rejected following an opinion that defecting from the army is not a reason for refugees. Following the change announced by the state in 2019, it was decided to review his application once again and the processing unit in September 2019 recommended that he be recognized as a refugee.

In the Refugee Advisory Committee, it was decided to conduct a supplementary interview due to disagreements, seven and a half years after his entry into the country, and it was decided in January 2020 by a majority opinion that he should be granted refugee status. This is despite the fact that the unit changed its position once again. The representative of the Ministry of Justice, who objected to the recognition, attributed to him unreliability regarding the stage in which he was injured in the eye. The recommendation to recognize him as a refugee was submitted to the Minister of the Interior, but he decided to reject it without justification. Tekla received a notice about this last August and appealed against it through the Center for Refugees and Immigrants. A hearing in his case will be held next month in the Jerusalem Court of Appeals.

"The appellant was frequently interrogated and severely tortured, and one of his friends who was arrested with him died as a result of his past torture. During his imprisonment one of the prison guards hit him in the eye with a wooden stick, resulting in the appellant losing sight in his eye," the appeal said. It was also noted that even on his way from Eritrea he was abducted by smugglers who starved him and that he was transferred to Sinai and tortured there until his family paid for his release.

At the same time, the appeal alleges that the state's criteria are contrary to the UN Commissioner of Refugees' position and the court's finding that "the objective situation in Eritrea in itself indicates the authorities' perception of Eritrean citizens' evasion of military service as having an ideological-political dimension. In addition, the respondent's demand for the presentation of 'something else' or for the presentation of an ongoing ideological dimension are also in complete contradiction to the UN Commission's interpretation of the Convention on Refugees. "

It was further stated that the decision of the Minister not to adopt a positive recommendation of the committee is an exceptional matter. "The decision of the Minister of the Interior to reject the appellant's application despite the recommendations of most committee members to recognize the appellant as a refugee - after finding that the core of his application justifies granting such status, raises significant flaws both in interpreting international law and its In a reasonable and proportionate manner, "it was argued.

In a conversation with Walla!

Tekla describes that in the years since his arrival in Israel he has lived in Saharonim and the sands.

"We were told 'it's either you're going out or in jail. I've been in jail for a year and a half," he says, wanting to emphasize, "I didn't come here to work. I was afraid to stay there."

Refugees leave Holot facility, 2018 (Photo: Reuters)

Advocate Inbar Barel, director of the legal department of the Center for Refugees and Immigrants, which represents Tekla, says that "Eritrean asylum seekers are imprisoned in an endless maze of failures: at first the Population and Immigration Authority refused to examine their asylum applications, then examined them incorrectly. And now, she has found another escape route from the refugee coach - in the form of new standards that also do not meet accepted standards. "All this for the simple reason that if asylum applications are examined according to the treaty to which Israel is a signatory and committed, it will have to recognize many asylum seekers as refugees."

She says, "The pace of exams is particularly disturbing, as we see asylum seekers waiting for an answer." In the community, he deprives people of the status they are entitled to, and leaves them for years without any rights and no safety net. "

This week, the High Court criticized the state's conduct regarding asylum seekers from Sudan, ruling that the case of people from the Darfur region and the Nova and Blue Nile region who submitted applications before June 2017 until the end of the year should be decided. Otherwise, the judges ruled that the state should grant them temporary resident status. Subject to the absence of criminal or security prevention, pending a decision in their case.

"I did not come here to work. I was afraid to stay there" (Photo: Reuven Castro)

There are about 6,200 Sudanese citizens in Israel, of whom about 4,000 are asylum seekers. The country froze the examination of asylum applications from asylum seekers from Sudan on the grounds of internal changes taking place in the country of origin. In 2017, were submitted petitions relating to asylum seekers -2445 through Michal Pomerantz attorney's office and the Attorney Tomer Warsaw. Since the state requested again delays its response to the petitions, arguing that examine the developments taking place in Sudan as well as the changes in diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Judges Esther Hayut, George Kara and Yael Wilner noted in their decision this week that the state has dragged its feet, and has not made decisions on the applications despite its statements over the years. It was further determined that the delay "caused significant damage to asylum seekers. This is especially so because the decisions that need to be decided concern the most core and basic human rights of asylum seekers. "If the asylum applications of the people of Darfur had been examined, it is possible that at least some of them would have been accepted."

Warsaw said following the decision that "this is a very successful day for human rights in Israel and asylum seekers from Darfur in particular. The interior minister is also subject to the law, and the Supreme Court today explicitly ruled that authority can not be abused and many years avoided. "This is not about changing Israel's immigration policy or opening borders, but about a proper response to the ongoing failure of the State of Israel, which on the one hand has signed the Refugee Convention but on the other hand dissolves all justified requests for its own reasons."

Share on Facebook
Share on WhatsApp
Share on general
Share on general
Share on Twitter
Share on Email

0 comments

Source: walla

All news articles on 2021-05-05

Despite changing criteria: less than 3% of Eritrean asylum seekers approved - Walla! news

Despite changing criteria: Less than 3% of Eritrean asylum seekers have been approved

More on Walla!

Despite the announcement of its closure, the vaccine complex for the foreign population in Tel Aviv will continue to operate

for further reading

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest