Eritreans

Thousands of asylum seekers and activists protest outside the Rwandan embassy in Herzliya. February 7, 2018. (Shiraz Grinbaum/Activestills.org)

Live blog: Global protests against Israeli plans to deport refugees

Protests are expected outside Rwandan embassies around the world Wednesday as Israel moves forward with its plan to deport tens of thousands of asylum seekers, most of whom fled Eritrea and Sudan. By +972 Magazine Staff [This live blog has ended.] Activists hope Israel’s deportation plan can be stopped if Rwanda pulls out of its…

By +972 Magazine February 7, 2018

A police officer arrives at the scene of a protest action by unknown activists against the deportations. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Following protest, Interior Ministry refuses to accept asylum requests

Activists splashed red paint and left mannequin heads at the entrance to the Population and Immigration Authority’s office in Tel Aviv. The Interior Ministry decided to collectively punish the asylum seekers in response. The Israeli Interior Ministry said it was refusing to process any asylum claims Sunday morning as a collective punishment of sorts in…

By Joshua Leifer January 28, 2018

Protesters outside of the president's residence in Jerusalem on Monday night, January 22, 2018. (Yael Marom)

Asylum seekers to Israel’s president: ‘Look us in the eyes’

Israel plans to begin deporting tens of thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers in the coming months. Hundreds gather outside the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, hoping to tell him their stories. Several hundred asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan demonstrated in front of Israeli President Rivlin’s official residence in Jerusalem Monday night, calling on…

By Yali (Yael) Marom January 23, 2018

Latest

Thousands of asylum seekers protest outside the Rwandan embassy in Herzilya, Monday, January 22, 2018. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Thousands of asylum seekers protest deportation outside Rwandan embassy

The demonstration, held by African asylum seekers, Israelis, and international activists, marks the opening of a new front in the struggle against the deportation. Approximately 2,000 asylum seekers demonstrated outside of the Rwandan embassy in Herzilya on Monday against the Israeli government’s plan to deport them. The demonstrators, joined by Israeli and international human rights activists,…

By Joshua Leifer January 22, 2018

African asylum seekers walking towards the March For Freedom camp, Negev Desert, June 28, 2014. (Photo by Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

Uganda denies agreement with Israel on asylum seekers

The Ugandan government officially denies claims it has signed an agreement with Israel, whereby it would absorb forcefully deported Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers. The Israeli government has resisted calls to divulge the details of the agreements it had allegedly signed with ‘third countries.’ Government officials in Uganda deny there is any agreement with Israel…

By Mairav Zonszein April 29, 2015

Swedish-Eritrean journalist Meron Estefanos in 'Sound of Torture' (Screenshot)

WATCH: Listening to the ‘Sound of Torture’

A new Israeli film takes a disturbing look at the torture camps for Eritrean refugees in Sinai, and the Swedish-Eritrean journalist who has devoted herself to exposing the torture victims’ stories and ending their suffering. Related: A life of forced labor: Why Israel’s Eritrean refugees fled home Testimony: Sudanese refugee details torture by Sinai smugglers…

By Social TV October 31, 2014

Eritrean refugees living in Israel take part in a protest outside the Eritrean embassy in the city of Ramat Gan, February 1. 2013. The protesters were calling for the ousting of the dictatorship regime in Eritrea, and the release of all political prisoners. (Photo by: Yotam Ronen/ Activestills.org)

A life of forced labor: Why Israel’s Eritrean refugees fled home

Is Eritrea’s brutal dictatorship on the verge of collapse? By Elizabeth Tsurkov Israel is home to about 35,000 Eritrean asylum-seekers. While the Israeli government claims that they are work migrants, so as not to violate its own laws, Israel does not forcibly deport Eritreans back to their country of origin. As long as Eritrea is…

By +972 Magazine October 28, 2014

African asylum seekers march from the Holot detention center, in which they are jailed, to the Israeli-Egyptian border in protest of Israel’s asylum policies, calling on the UN and the Red Cross to intervene, Negev, June 27, 2014. (Photo by Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

PHOTOS: Asylum seekers march out of ‘open prison,’ demand resettlement

Around 1,000 asylum seekers walk out of the Holot open detention facility but are stopped short of the Egyptian border, announce they will no longer seek acceptance by the Israeli government and demand that the United Nations take responsibility for them and resettle them in third countries. Text by Michael Omer-Man Photos by Oren Ziv,…

By Activestills June 28, 2014

Police who arrived at the park chose to detain the two neighbors who were arguing with the right-wing protesters for "disturbing the public order." The right-wing activists who tried to attack them were not checked by the police. The two who were arrested were released after 10 hours, with a order not to enter the park. After the right-wing protesters celebrated their small victory of forcing the Eritreans out of the park, they said they will be back next Saturday to make sure no more memorial ceremonies will be held in the area. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

PHOTOS: Right-wing activists disrupt Eritrean mourners

Right-wing activists intentionally disrupt memorial ceremonies held in a public park by Eritrean immigrants. Police arrest two neighbors who attempt to intervene. [Comment added below] Every Saturday, African asylum seekers from the Eritrean community gather in a small park on De Modina Street in the Shapira neighborhood of south Tel Aviv. There, they hold memorial ceremonies…

By Activestills February 15, 2014

African Asylum seekers take part in a protest march on the highway from Beer Sheva in southern Israel on their way to Jerusalem on December 16, 2013, after they fled a detention center in the south where they were being held. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

150 imprisoned African asylum seekers start hunger strike

Some 150 Sudanese asylum seekers jailed in the Saharonim prison began an open-ended hunger strike on Sunday. The prisoners, all of whom took part in the March For Freedom last month and were taken back to the facility, announced they would continue to strike until their release. Since Sunday, prison authorities have isolated the hunger strikers, and…

By Activestills January 9, 2014

Refugees pose infront of a poster of Saharonim prison, during the Refugee Day in tel Aviv on June 20, 2013.
(Keren Manor/Activestills.org)

Eritrean asylum seekers on hunger strike to protest detention without trial

Asylum seekers return meals for fifth straight day in protest of administrative detention, NGOs report. (Updated below) Some 350 Eritrean asylum seekers are in the fifth day of a hunger strike protesting their administrative detention in an Israeli prison. Asylum seekers in Block 3 of the Saharonim detention facility began a hunger strike on Saturday…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man June 27, 2013

Ibrahim, a refugee from Sudan, holds a document given to him by the UN in Egypt, as he takes part in a protest held by refugees and activists outside the UN offices in Tel Aviv, June 10, 2012 (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Fact checking racist incitement against African refugees in Israel

Respected Israeli journalist Ben Caspit recently launched an attack against African asylum seekers in Israeli national newspapers ‘The Post’ and ‘Jerusalem Post.’ A response to the racist incitement and damaging factual inaccuracies. By Natasha Roth and Leah McDonnell A recent article in The Post‘s Sof Hashavua magazine, which was subsequently translated into English and published in…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland June 18, 2013

Immigration police arresting an Eritrean refugee, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2/3/2008 (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Israeli plan to offload Eritreans: An affront to international law

Israel’s supposed plan to send tens of thousands of Eritrean asylum seekers to an unspecified African country raises enormous humanitarian, human rights and political concerns. The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees recognizes that: …the grant of asylum may place unduly heavy burdens on certain countries, and that a satisfactory solution of a…

By Noa Yachot June 3, 2013