(July 12, 2012, Haaretz)--Gross human rights violations in Eritrea have led to more than a quarter of a million Eritreans to flee and seek shelter elsewhere. Why would Israel want to join the unsavory club of countries that send refugees back to Eritrea?
My birthplace is in the Eritrean capital Asmara, where the
late Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and ex-Mossad leader Rafi Eitan were
imprisoned by the British in 1946, near the suburb of Idaga-Arbi.
We used to call the area ‘Inda-Encode’ in honor of the Encode kosher beef packing company that was located nearby. It was there that I saw for the first time in my life an orthodox Jew. I remember asking my mother: “Who are these people?” My mother used to reply: “These are the people of God.”
Eritrea is a different kind of place now. Gross human rights violations in Eritrea are an open secret denied only by the Eritrean regime itself, and apologist friends of its president. This has led to more than an estimated quarter of a million Eritreans to flee and seek shelter elsewhere. Approximately 25,000 Eritreans have sought asylum in Israel.
The Israeli government is contemplating a forcible repatriation of Eritrean refugees back to Eritrea, despite repeated warnings from national and international organizations about the very real dangers refugees would face on their arrival.
A host of international human rights organizations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Amnesty International, have documented the fate of Eritrean asylum seekers who were repatriated to Eritrea from Malta, Egypt, Sudan and Libya: They have been incarcerated, tortured and some have been “disappeared.” Read more from Haaretz »
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| Photo by Moti Milrod |
We used to call the area ‘Inda-Encode’ in honor of the Encode kosher beef packing company that was located nearby. It was there that I saw for the first time in my life an orthodox Jew. I remember asking my mother: “Who are these people?” My mother used to reply: “These are the people of God.”
Eritrea is a different kind of place now. Gross human rights violations in Eritrea are an open secret denied only by the Eritrean regime itself, and apologist friends of its president. This has led to more than an estimated quarter of a million Eritreans to flee and seek shelter elsewhere. Approximately 25,000 Eritreans have sought asylum in Israel.
The Israeli government is contemplating a forcible repatriation of Eritrean refugees back to Eritrea, despite repeated warnings from national and international organizations about the very real dangers refugees would face on their arrival.
A host of international human rights organizations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Amnesty International, have documented the fate of Eritrean asylum seekers who were repatriated to Eritrea from Malta, Egypt, Sudan and Libya: They have been incarcerated, tortured and some have been “disappeared.” Read more from Haaretz »
1 comment:
Israeli government should not give asylum to these run away from eriteria, because I think they are all fakes, come to Israel so that latter they can make trouble. What happens they come to west and start protests against the foreign policy of the country; when the country have to take action against Muslim country for their misconduct. They are young they should do as their country wants them to enlist for army.. for Muslim this is a way to paradise. They should be kicked out.
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