The Situation of African Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel Essay

The Situation of African Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel - Essay Example This was the first of a series of acts that displayed Israel’s opposition to further entry.   At the end of the year, a violent dispersal of a demonstration by Sudanese asylum seekers in Egypt, in which dozens were killed, resulted into an increase of refugee entry into Israel.   The country responded by reviving and enforcing a 50’s law, the Prevention of Infiltration Law in the early part of 2006.   A wave of arrests followed shortly, putting many Sudanese asylum seekers behind bars without the benefit of a quasi-judicial review.   Since then, all those arrested under the Prevention of Infiltration have been held in the Ketsiot prison without their cases heard. Several NGO’s had petitioned the High Court of Justice to put a stop on the use of such law by Israeli authorities.   The following years saw more attempts of refugees to enter Israel via the border with Egypt. With the state’s strict enforcement of the Prevention of Infiltration Law, re fugees were systematically arrested.   Many were forcibly sent back to Egypt under a process called ‘hot return’.   The refugees only experienced worse human rights abuses in the hands of the Egyptian authorities.   Several sympathetic local governments with the help of NGOs briefly accommodated those that remained, specially the Eritreans.   However, in 2007, the Ministry of Interior implemented measures took away the rights of the refugees and asylum seekers in getting employment.   Many were still tracked for ‘hot return’ and were temporarily detained while waiting to be sent forcibly .