Join the Release Now Campaign

Goal: Obtain 5000 letters addressed to asylum seekers in Saharonim prison and send them as letters or emails to canceldetention@gmail.com. The letters will be taken by activists and asylum seekers on bus to the prison itself on June 20, 2013--World Refugee Day. The letters will be given to relatives of people in detention who are in Israel and to policy-makers in the Ministry of Interior of Israel.

The campaign is co-hosted by Right Now and ASSAF

Click on videos below to learn more about asylum seekers in Israel:

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STOP THE DEPORTATION OF  ERITREAN ASLYUM SEEKERS FROM ISRAEL TO ERITREA OR UGANDA

"Your Only Way Out of the Israeli Prison is to Uganda or Eritrea"

(Immigration Authorities to Eritrean Asylum Seekers detained in Saharonim Prison)

Eritrean asylum seekers are in imminent danger of being deported back to Eritrea from Saharonim detention center in Israel. Israeli authorities in the facility told the asylum seekers that the only way they would ever get of the Israeli prison would be to go to Eritrea or Uganda.These individuals are currently being held under the Anti-Infiltration Law which mandates their automatic detention for a minimum of three years without trial.

Being released as an asylum seeker or refugee is impossible as prisoners lack access to the forms the Ministry of Interior requires to begin the RSD process. Therefore, after months of detention, many individuals have signed forms saying they want to go to Uganda and a very few have signed saying they want to go to Eritrea. 

News reaching human rights groups over the last few days make it seem that even individuals who had signed to go to Uganda are now in the process of being deported to Eritrea. We are unsure exactly when/if the deportations will take place, but we do fear that it could happen over the next week.

Amnesty International is very concerned for the fate of Eritrean asylum seekers who are returned to Eritrea. The Eritrean government considers any request for asylum in other countries to be an act of treason. Eritreans who are forcibly returned to Eritrea face a real risk of being subjected to violations, including incommunicado detention, torture and other forms of serious ill treatment. In addition, detention conditions in Eritrea are appalling, and in themselves amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Returning asylum seekers to Eritrea is a clear violation of the principle of non-refoulement and the 1951 Refugee Convention.


***CALL TO ACTION***


Action 1:

Please Email your local Israeli embassy or consulate.

You can find a list of their offices here: http://embassy.goabroad.com/embassies-of/israel

EMAIL TEMPLATE:

ATTENTION: Amnon Ben-Ami, Head of Israeli Immigration Authority

Dear Mr Ben-Ami,

I am writing to express my grave concern over the potential deportation of Eritrean asylum seekers from detention to Eritrea or Uganda. I have become aware that many Israeli human rights groups have been contacted by several asylum seekers on this issue. 

I am very concerned for the fate of Eritrean asylum seekers returned to Eritrea. Seeking asylum abroad is considered by the Eritrean government to be an act of treason. Eritreans forcibly returned to Eritrea face a real risk of being subjected to violations, including incommunicado detention, torture and other forms of serious ill-treatment. In addition, detention conditions in Eritrea are appalling, and in themselves amount to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment. Returns of asylum seekers to Eritrea is a clear violation of the principle of non-refoulement and the 1951 Refugee Convention. 

As a member of the international community living in Israel I urge you to respect the principle of non-refoulement and cancel any plans of deportation of Eritrean asylum seekers back to Eritrea. These Eritreans should be given access to fair and transparent refugee status determination proceedings in accordance with international standards.

Yours sincerely,

(Your name here)

Action 2

Please email Amnon Ben-Ami's assistants at these email addresses and cc your local Israeli consulate in these emails: galito@moin.gov.il, rose@moin.gov.il, tamarm@moin.gov.il,doveret@moin.gov.il

Action 3

Call your local consulate or the Embassy in DC and tell them that you are very concerned about this.






Stop detaining victims of trafficking and torture in Israeli prisons

Click here to sign the petition. 

The petition is co-sponsored with 
Rene Cassin: The Jewish Voice for Human Rights

Since June 2012, all African asylum seekers arriving in Israel have been automatically imprisoned without trial, for a minimum of three years. Detainees include those previously trafficked, raped and tortured in the Egyptian Sinai. Israel is the destination country and not responsible for abuse suffered prior to entry, but it nevertheless has obligations as to how it treats these people once they arrive. There are serious problems with the current system of dealing with victims of torture and trafficking in detention centers including a lack of identification of victims of trafficking, a lack of sufficient shelter space, and insufficient access to medical rehabilitation. Victims of human trafficking and torture are placed in detention upon entering Israel's borders. The Israeli government should quickly discontinue its policy of detaining victims of trafficking and torture.


Read a powerful op-ed by Right Now member Lucy Newman, who researched Israeli response to to victims of torture for her MPhil at the University of Cambridge, and who is currently working with Rene Cassin on the issue of human trafficking.  


Read an article in the Daily Jewish Forward about our January 27th event in Los Angeles, co-sponsored with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society:
"Advocates Spotlight Plight of African Immigrants in Israel: Los Angeles event calls for tolerance for asylum seekers"

Join us for two upcoming events in LA and San Francisco. Click here for more information. 



About Right Now:

Right Now is an international coalition of Jews and allies who are advocating for the rights of the African asylum seekers in Israel through awareness-raising, direct advocacy, and grassroots campaigns. Becoming a member of Right Now entails joining our list serve. You can help out as much or as little as you’d like. All members are volunteers and we are located throughout the United States and in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Argentina, and Israel.

We call on the Israeli government to:

• Develop a fair Refugee Status Determination procedure that allows for each individual to apply for asylum and provides protection and support for refugees in line with all other Western, democratic countries in the world. 
• Change its deportation process so that asylum seekers are not deported during the Refugee Status Determination process, including the period of time in which they can appeal a decision, and so that they have enough time to prepare for deportation or resettlement.
• Cease to build the massive detention center in the Negev desert that arbitrarily imprisons asylum seekers indefinitely.



Right Now supports an immigration policy in which, through a fair and effective Refugee Status Determination process, the case of each individual asylum seeker is researched and heard resulting in the determination of refugee status on a case-by-case basis. We recommend that Israel provide refugees with permanent or long-term temporary social residency and award support services as refugees in line with the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, including the right to work, the right to an education, the right to health services, and the right to travel freely in and out of the country. 

Israel should not send asylum seekers or refugees to countries in which their lives are in danger or in which they may be deported to their home countries where their lives are in danger. For those who do not receive refugee status upon going through the RSD process, they should be assisted in determining the safest place available to them. 

In light of the building of the fence along Israel's border with Egypt, the number of asylum seekers entering Israel has reduced drastically such that the numbers are not increasing. Thus, we feel that it is important that we prioritize the needs of the 60,000 asylum seekers in Israel's borders. Furthermore, the fence along the border, according to international law, is legal. However, Israel must abide by international law by allowing asylum seekers to enter Israel's borders through gates in the fence if they wish to apply for asylum. 

Take Action Right Now:


Email us at info@asylumseekers.org to learn about ways to get involved in the coalition or just to join our list serve for updates on the issue.

Learn about the issue: 

See our Youtube channel to view our documentary, "Refuge Among Refugees".