Israel, one of the initiators and first signatories of the 1951 Refugee Convention, does not want to assist the Sudanese and Eritrean refugees who have fled to it in their search for asylum. This report presents facts and figures related to Israel’s policies and activities to purge itself of these “nonremoveable foreigners,” from "hot returns" to deportation:

1. Economic Migrants
orAsylum Seekers?
Nonremovable
Foreigners
in Israel
Israel. January 2018

2. Israel, one of the initiators and first signatories
of the 1951 Refugee Convention, does not
want to assist the Sudanese and Eritrean
refugees who have fled to it in their search
for asylum.
This report presents facts and figures related
to Israel’s policies and activities to purge itself
of these “nonremoveable foreigners,” from
"hot returns" to deportation:
Table of Contents
Refugees (The 1951 convention, article 33)
Infiltrators (Israeli legislation, Sudan and
Eritrea, torture camps in the Sinai)
Population Statistics
Asylum Requests
Deportation(Thequietdeportation,thedeportation
to Sudan, the fate of the deportees)
Israeli Violations of International Law
Financial Statistics
Conclusion
3
9
15
19
23
30
31
34
Research: Gilad Liberman, Esty Segal, Translation: Gilad
Liberman, English editing: Heidi J. Gleit , Editing and
design: Esty Segal (Infoesty)

3. 3
1
A
well-founded
fear
of being
persecuted
Who is a Refugee?
Sudanese and
Eritreans around
the Globe and in
Israel
(Photo: from the web)

4. UNHCR
the UN Refugee
Agency
4
UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) was established
by UN General Assembly Resolution 319 (IV) in
December 1949 in the aftermath of World War II,
which turned million of Europeans into refugees and
displaced persons.
The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
m was approved, setting criteria for
d determining who is a refugee.
At least three Jewish legal experts, some of whom
were Holocaust survivors, played a major role in
drafting the convention. (For more details, click here)
The convention went into effect on April 24, 1954.
On October 1, 1954, Israel became one of the first
states to sign the convention.
On June 14, 1968, Israel was one of the first states to
sign the 1967 protocol, which removed the time and
geographic limits on the definition of a refugee.
However, Israel never passed legislation of its own to
anchor the convention in Israeli law.
December 1949
July 1951
October 1954
The
Convention

5. 5
Article 33 of the convention prohibits expulsion or return ("refoulement") of
refugees:
"No Contracting State shall expel or return (‘refouler;’) a refugee
in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where
his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race,
religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or
political opinion.”
Article 33 also applies to an asylum seeker who enters a country
illegally in the search for refuge.
(To read the convention, click here)
Who is a
Refugee?
Article 1 of the convention, as amended by the 1967 protocol, defines a refugee
as:
"A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted
for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a
particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country
of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling
to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not
having a nationality and being outside the country of his former
habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing
to such fear, is unwilling to return to it."
Refugees' Rights

6. 6
The World
Recognizes
Sudanese and Eritreans
as Refugees
(To read the UN report, click here)
Average Recognition Rates Worldwide
of Asylum Requests in 2016 for
Refugee statusSubsidiary protectionRefugee statusSubsidiary protection
Eritreans Sudanese

7. 13,784
11
7
have been granted refugee status
In Israel
A total of
Sudanese and Eritreans have applied
for asylum to date

8. 8
2015
in Israel and Europe
Recognition rates
for Eritreans
"Today the state of the Jews
exists.
We have not forgotten. We
shall act humanely. We will
bringthesedesperatepersons,
and give them shelter and
refuge."
In June 1977, Menachem Begin’s first official decision as prime
minister was to accept 64 Vietnamese refugees:
)Data and graphics courtesy of Amnesty International(
1977
PM
Begin
(For details, click here)
Sweden
89.9%
Belgium
88.7%
Holland
92.5%
Germany
91.1%
Israel
Italy
87.3%
France
56.9%
Greece
64.3%
UK
44%
Switzerland
38.6%

9. 2
9
Legislation
Sudan and Eritrea
Sinai Torture Camps
(Photo: Yair Meyuhas)
Who are we
calling an
"infiltrator"
and why?

10. 10
"Since the early 1990s, the number of foreigners
residing in Israel illegally has risen.
This group includes foreign workers who entered
Israel legally and did not leave when their work
visa expired; people who entered with a tourist
visa and did not leave when their tourist visa
expired; and foreigners who did not enter Israel
via the official border crossings. In June 2013,
these groups came to a total of 230,000 people,
54,000 of whom are nonremoveable.
This report considers the nonremoveable
foreigners, who mainly hail from Eritrea and
Sudan.”
According to the UN Refugee Agency, such people
should be assigned a label that indicates that they
had no choice but to flee their country and cannot
return to it, such as ‘asylum seekers’ or “people
in a refugee-like situation.”
(From the Israeli State Comptroller’s Report, 2013)
Intro: Nonremovable Foreigners
Corpses of ethnic cleansing victims in Darfur
(Photo: from the web)

11. 11
92% of the
"infiltrators"
hail from
Sudan and
Eritrea - why?
Sudan
In Sudan, the Khartoum regime is perpetrating
genocide and ethnic cleansing. The victims are
members of the non-Arab tribes residing in western
Sudan (Darfur) and southern Sudan (Nuba mountains
and the Blue Nile region).
The total number of Sudanese citizens who fled
their country due to genocide, entered Israel
by crossing the Israeli-Egyptian border in the
Sinai, and remain in Israel today: 7,869.
Eritrea lacks a legal system, has never held an
election, and forces all citizens to perform military
service, which is unlike military service in any other
country, for an unlimited time period.
This military service basically is forced labor without
pay. Recruits perform physically demanding manual
labor such as paving roads, mining, agriculture, etc.
Those evading the army are considered traitors. If
the Eritrean authorities catch them, they are harshly
tortured. Some evaders are executed or tortured
to death. As a result, every month around 4,000
Eritreans flee the country, mainly to escape military
service.
The total number of Eritrean citizens who fled
their country, entered Israel by crossing the
Israeli-Egyptian border in the Sinai, and remain
in Israel today: 27,494.
(For more details, click here)
Eritrea
The State of Israel knows it cannot deport people fleeing
Sudan and Eritrea, but was worried by the number of people
from these countries who arrived in Israel.
The Knesset (the Israeli parliament) therefore amended
legislation from the 1950s which originally was intended
to prevent members of terror organizations from illegally
entering Israel to execute acts of terror against Israeli
civilians. The amendment redefines an "infiltrator" as
anyone who enters Israel at a point that is not an official
border crossing, without differentiating between people
who pose a security threat, refugees, asylum seekers and
economic migrants.
The stated goal of this amendment is to deter additional
refugees and asylum seekers from coming to Israel by
the draconian punishment, detention, and deportation
of refugees and asylum seekers already in Israel.
Infiltrators

12. 12
2011
Then-Israeli
Deputy
Foreign
Minister
Danny
Ayalon:
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister
Danny Ayalon’s explanation to the
Knesset Committee on Foreign Workers
on 31.11.2011
(For the Hebrew protocol of the hearing, click here)
Eritreaisknownintheinternational
community as a country that does
not safeguard human rights and
anyone who returns there is in
danger, including danger of death,
and thus we are much more careful
here.
The idea of transferring them to
third-party countries has been
raised.
The Foreign Ministry investigated
this option.The outcome is that
this cannot be done.
The fence will provide a solution,
which also accords with UN policy,
because it will bar those poor
refugees that have to cross the
entire Sahara and Sinai desert,
and are vulnerable to terrible risks
- you don't know what they do to
them there...

13. 13
On the Way:
Sinai Torture
Camps
Approximately 7,000
victims of Sinai torture
camps live in Israel
today
The asylum seekers’ journey starts with a dangerous escape
from their countries. Those caught at the Eritrean border
are imprisoned or executed. Those who manage to escape
have no choice but to pay thousands of dollars to human
traffickers.
The journey can take months to complete. Often, the
journey ends in an Egyptian prison or a torture camp
operated by one of the criminal gangs in the Sinai desert.
Since 2009, women have been arriving in these torture
camps. The women are raped by the human traffickers who
hold them prisoner in Sinai.
In early 2010, testimony began to appear from male asylum
seekers who were tortured harsly in these camps in order
to extort ransom from their families. So far, the Physicians
for Human Rights organization has collected around 1,000
testimonies from torture survivors, most of whom are
Eritrean asylum seekers. (For details, click here)
They didn’t plan to come
to Israel - some were
kidnapped by traffickers in
Africa after fleeing Eritrea
About 10 survivors of
torture camps are being
imprisoned in Israel in
Holot and Saharonim for an
unlimited period
Many of those who were
released from or managed
to escape the camps are
imprisoned and tortured
by the Egyptian police
stations
The Sinai torture
camps rely on
kidnapping Eritreans
from refugee camp in
Sudan
The Israel Police has
recognized only a small
number of the survivors
as victims of human
trafficking and slavery
(Photo: Sigal Rozen)

14. 14
‫״‬
‫״‬
Testimony a female Eritrean
asylum seeker gave
before the court in Israel’s
Saharonim prison.
(To read additional testimony,
click here)
I didn't plan to go to Israel.
I fled from military service in Eritrea
and planned to go to Sudan. Bedouin
traffickers kidnapped me on the
Eritrean-Sudanese border.
They brought me to Sinai by car.
I was forced to pay a very large
amount of money to be released.
I was tortured physically and
sexually. The traffickers chained
both of my legs with metal
shackles. They blindfolded me so I
did not see daylight for five months.
I was beaten with a stick and shoes.
They beat my head, back, and entire
body. They also dripped melted
plastic on my skin, which left scars.
I suffered from hunger and thirst. They
only gave us food once a day - bread.

15. 15
3
(Photo: Yair Meyuhas)
All of Africa
Will
Come Here
How many
"Infiltrators"
Really Live Here?
Facts and Figures

16. 16
37,288 Asylum seekers in
Israel in 2017
out of a total Israeli population of 8,680,000 men
and women in 2017.
(Data from the Israeli Population and Immigration
Authority’s January 2018 report. To read the Hebrew-
language report, click here [No English version])
4.2 asylum seekers per 1,000 Israelis

17. 17
14,920
28,620
14,920
of the asylum seekers
live in Tel Aviv
In 2017, asylum seekers made up 3% of Tel Aviv’s
population, which numbered 438,818 people.
How to create a problem:
From the moment that people fleeing Eritrea and Sudan
began crossing Israel’s border in the south, the State of
Israel imprisoned them in southern Israel for varying periods
of time and then put them on buses to the Tel Aviv Central
Bus Station. In other words, the State of Israel directed
them to the impoverished neighborhoods in south Tel Aviv.
So a struggling population (which needed the government’s
assistance, according to the State Comptroller’s report
of 2013 - click here to read it) made up of people who
had fled their homes and survived a harrowing journey
that took them from the Sinai torture camps to an Israeli
prison, found itself sharing space with another struggling
population which had been neglected for generations.
The result - additional hardships for Tel Aviv’s
southern neighborhoods.
The asylum seekers (as well as foreign workers) are
concentrated largely in district 8 of Tel Aviv, mainly in the
Neve Sha’anan, Shapira, and Kiryat Shalom neighborhoods.
This area has been neglected for generations.
District 8 is home to some 28,620 Israelis in addition to the
asylum seekers and foreign workers. Every third resident in
this district is an asylum seeker.(for municipal population
statistics, click here)
2017
Composition of
South Tel Aviv’s
Population:Israelis
Asylum
seekers

18. 18
130,807
37,288
According to Israeli Population and Immigration
Authority data, in 2017, there were:
18,267 illegal foreign workers
74,000 people who entered the country as tourists
and did not renew their expired tourist visa (70%
from the FSU)
37,288 nonremoveable foreigners (from Sudan and
Eritrea)
In 2017
people were residing in Israel illegally
Were from Sudan and Eritrea
only
In 2016, asylum requests from Georgia and
Ukraine skyrocketed.
Israeli human-resource agencies apparently played a
role in this, providing false information regarding the
possibility of working legally in Israel.
The human-resource agencies charge very high fees
and may also profit from selling forged documents.
Their activities are turning out to be a new
channel for human trafficking.

19. 19
4
Method for preventing
submission of asylum
requests.
13,784
Sudanese and
Eritreans
submitted asylum
requests
Israel rejects them
out of hand or
ignores them.

20. 2011
2013
1
2012
2014
2016
2017
20
In September 2017,
the government
acknowledged the
problem, but refused
to accept applications
by any other means.
Can’t deport
them.
Don’t want to
accept them.
So what do you do?
Israel knows that if it evaluates the asylum applications
in accordance with international law, it will have to
recognize a high percent of the asylum seekers as
refugees.
To avoid that, Israel:
Hinder the submission of the
requests in various ways.
Preventing Sudanese and
Eritreans from submitting
asylum applications:
The RSD unit initially
prevents this with
the claim that they
have been granted
"temporary
protection"
Preventing detainees
at Holot from
applying:
The prison guards claim
they do not have the
application forms
Overburdened
system
cannot handle
new submissions:
Until August 2016,
applications could only be
submitted in person at an
office on Salame Street in Tel Aviv
from 8:30 to 12:30 each morning.
Only a few people were permitted to
enter each day and long lines
formed outside the office. Asylum
seekers waited in line day after day,
but did not succeed to submit their
application.
Anyone who manage to submit an application either:
1. Receives no response for years or
2. Is rejected
The results:
Queuing to get a
number for
another queue
Starting November 2016,
those allowed in to submit
their application on a
given day were selected
from 7:00 to 8:00 in the
morning
Starting January 2017,
it simply is not possible
to submit an asylum
application
No entrance
Asylum application
forms must be
submitted in person
and not by mail,
email, or fax:

21. 21
2
(To read the
Hebrew-language protocol
from the Knesset discussion,
click here)
Rejecting or
Ignoring
Asylum
Applications
(For more details, click here)
(For more details, click here)

22. 22
I was a minister in the government
and there is a very clear policy
2016
Meir Cohen,
former Israeli
welfare and
social services
minister:
(From the Knesset’s Labor, Welfare, and Health
Committee meeting on 29.2.2016. To read the Hebrew
protocol, click here)
of ignoring these requests.
Anyone who comes from Eritrea is
accepted as a refugee anywhere
(worldwide), but here they don't do
that.
The unstated policy dictated
from above is not to recognize
these people and to leave these
43,000 people in limbo.
We all know very well what's
happening.

23. 23
5
The Quiet Deportation
The Deportation to Sudan
What Happens in the
"Third-Party Country"
We Don't Send
Them to Die
We Send Them
to Rwanda
Testimony from the mobile phone camera of an asylum seeker who was “voluntarily”
deported. (Photo: Jacky Adams Getty)

24. 24
The Quiet
("Voluntary")
Deportation
Since Israel cannot deport the "nonremoveable
foreigners," it finds numerous way to make their lives
miserable so they'll agree to deportation (detention,
draconian punishment, taxation, incitement, etc).
This "voluntary" deportation has been happening
since 2011.
In an official response to human-rights activists, PIBA
declared that as of August 2, 2015, 9,944 asylum
seekers had "voluntarily returned" to:
Sudan - 4,608
Eritrea - 1,059
Third-party countries - 2,688*
But returning to Sudan and Eritrea is risking their
lives, so how and why were they returned to there?
Were they deceived?
*The data that PIBA provided to the activists in accordance with the
freedom of information legislation differs from the data it provided to
the Ha’aretz newspaper.
(to the article - here)

25. 25
Third-
party
Country
September 2017
Sudanese foreign minister:
"Being in Israel is a crime"
As a result, the Sudanese
regime persecutes anyone
returning to Sudan from
Israel
2013
Israel refoules some
1,000 asylum seekers
to Sudan via another
country (mainly Jordan)
2013-2014
Media reports
deportation of Sudanese
and Eritrean asylum
seekers from Israel to
Rwanda and UgandaJanuary 5, 2018
Rwanda also denies
having any such
agreement with Israel
2013-2018
Uganda denies having
any agreement with
Israel regarding
refugees
Absolutely
Not Voluntary
Over 800 people have been refouled to Sudan directly
from Israeli prisons. They were imprisoned upon entering
Israel and did not enjoy a single day of freedom in Israel.

26. 26 (Graphics courtesy of Ha’aretz, to read more click here)
Rwanda - The
"Third Country"
Lie: 2017: Testimony of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum
seekers shows that after their "voluntary" departure
to Rwanda they do not enjoy the safety there that the
State of Israel promised them. Instead, within days
they are forced to agree to be smuggled out of Rwanda
to Uganda, where they are delivered directly into the
hands of human traffickers. Left without legal status
or documents, they are at risk of refoulement and
have no choice but to set out on the life-threatening
journey to Europe, despite the risks posed by ISIS,
human traffickers and torturers in Libya, and the
Mediterranean Sea. (To read more, click here)

27. 27
1. The Israeli Ministry of Interior left medicine and
medical equipment of "voluntary deportees" in the
airport in Israel instead of sending it to Sudan with
them. The result: The death of infants, children,
and adults who were deported.
2. During the first year, at least 22 of the
deportees died.
3. On December 15, 2013, less than two years
after the deportation, civil war erupted in South
Sudan. Within one year, the number of displaced
persons reached 1.9 million and 7 million people
are at risk due to famine and disease.
The UN recommends to Israel that it not deport
asylum seekers to South Sudan.
The Deportation
to South
Sudan
2012: Interior Minister Eli Yishai jumps at the
opportunity to deport South Sudanese asylum seekers
when South Sudan declares independence and is
removed from the UN list of dangerous countries.
In June 2012, Judge Yigal Marzel approves the
deportation, despite evidence of instability, epidemics,
and famine in the new state, and the deportation
starts.
Some 2,500 men, women, and children who lived in
Israel peacefully for years are deported to unknown
and dangerous fate.
Then the
news
arrived:
4. Dr. Rami Gudovitch, who manages a school for the deported
children in Kampala, reports that over 60 deportees have died.
5. Account after account appears of deportees from Israel
who lost their lives in the civil war in South Sudan.
(Photo: Dan Haimovich)

28. 28
Corpses of asylum seekers whose search for refuge ended in the Libyan desert.
(Photo: An asylum seeker in Libya)
Asylum seekers in Arad prior to their deportation to South Sudan.

29. 29
2012
Harel
Locker,
Director
General
of the
Pm’s
Office:
(From an interview with Israel Radio)
“Most of the infiltrators are from
Sudan and Eritrea, countries we
cannot deport people to since their
lives would be at risk there and
Israel is a signatory to international
conventions.
There are two conditions for
removing infiltrators:
First, a state must agree to accept
them, and second, there's no threat
to their lives there. We cannot land
airplanes in these two countries and
violate their sovereignty. Sudan is
also an enemy country...
We need a country that will agree to
accept them, and that country also
must guarantee their safety."

30. 30
Israel
Violates
Interna-
tional
Law:
(To read the convention,
click here.)
1. Imprisonment in Holot and Saharonim
violates the convention:
“The Contracting States shall not impose
penalties, on account of their illegal entry
or presence, on refugees who, coming
directly from a territory where their life
or freedom was threatened in the sense
of article i, enter or are present in their
territory without authorization, provided
they present themselves without delay
to the authorities and show good cause
for their illegal entry or presence."
2. The "Deposit" law and punitory
fines imposed on employers of
refugees violate the convention:
"The Contracting States shall not impose
upon refugees duties, charges or taxes,
of any description whatsoever, other
or higher than those which are or may
be levied on their nationals in similar
situations."
3. Hindering submission of asylum
applications
4. Not evaluating asylum requests
5. Refoulement is the most severe
violation of the convention:
"No Contracting State shall expel or
return ("refouler") a refugee in any
manner whatsoever to the frontiers
of territories where his life or freedom
would be threatened on account of his
race, religion, nationality, membership
of a particular social group or political
opinion."

31. 31
6
Financial Statistics
on the Saharonim
and Holot
Detention Centers
How Much
Does this
Cost
Israeli
Taxpayers?
(Photo: Activestills)

32. 32
1,247,689,500
Instead of addressing the problems in south Tel Aviv and
fulfilling the commitments it made to asylum seekers
upon signing the convention, the Israeli government
decided to build detention centers for asylum seekers.
How much did this undertaking cost? It's hard to find
the information. Some data regarding the expenses
can be derived from the Knesset research center (for
details, click here) and from the state’s 2015 budget
(for details, click here).
We could not find all of the data regarding the expenses
involved in operating Saharonim. We also were unable
to obtain the budget for Saharonim and Holot in 2017,
so we used the average of the previous four years.
Saharonim and Holot Detention Centers
The Financial Cost
Holot
Saharonim
Buried in the Negev
Just think what could have been achieved with this money...
NIS

33. 33
The deportation to South Sudan
(Photo: Dan Haimovich)
How Much Will the
Deportation Cost?
Just think of what could have been achieved with this money
to assist south Tel Aviv and the asylum seekers
2016 Some 4,500 asylum seekers
were "voluntarily" deported at a cost of:
2018 The projected expense of deporting
10,000 asylum seekers, including a
$3,500 incentive grant to each deportee
and $5,000 to the "third country," totals:
(The $5,000 payment per person to the
“third country” comes from unofficial
sources and has not been confirmed.
The 10,000 comes from a questionable
statement released by a Rwandan
minister.)
The Population, Immigration and Borders
Authority estimates that it will cost:
68 millionNIS
85 million$
300 millionNIS

34. 34
(Photo: Dan Haimovich)
Conclusion:
1. The statements by the director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, Harel
Locker (2011), and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon (2012) demonstrate that
the Israeli government is fully aware of the human-rights abuses in Sudan and
Eritrea and of its obligations to asylum seekers yet consciously chooses to make
their lives miserable, as Welfare and Social Services Minister Meir Cohen declared (2016).
2. Israel consciously breaks international law.
The Israeli minister of interior has consistently persecuted the Eritrean and
Sudanese asylum seekers, from Eli Yishai, who zealously deported people to South
Sudan without even sending their medications, to Gideon Saar, Gilad Erdan, Silvan Shalom
and now Arieh Deri.
3. The Israeli government provided "voluntary" deportees with fake passports (for details,
click here) and when deportees arrived in the "third-party countries," their documents
were systematically taken from them, leaving them without any valid documents and
completely at the mercy of traffickers. This raises the suspicion that Israeli officials
are part of the trafficking chain.
4. The great efforts to prevent asylum seekers from working in Israel and the deportation
have an economic rationale - there are those who profit directly from this:
The human-resource agencies have close ties to a number of Knesset members
and ministers. Each asylum seeker that is deported will be replaced by a foreign
worker that the agencies will earn a commission for importing. This can be seen
clearly in Eilat, where 6,000 asylum seekers once were employed in the hotel industry.
Today only 1,800 asylum seekers work in Eilat and Jordanians have replaced them (for
details, click here).
The Israeli Ministry of Tourism recently proposed that hotels import workers from the
Philippines to replace the deported African asylum seekers (for details, click here).