A group representing Eritrean refugees have told Israel to suspend its practice of “voluntary deportations” and begin comprehensively examining asylum requests.
During a press conference on Sunday (July 28), the group produced a letter addressed to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in which they refuted the view that the returns signed by prisoners in Israeli detention centres are voluntary, saying “despite the fact that they have chosen to call it ‘voluntary return,’ when they have no choice about their return, [that] means it is not voluntary.
“Our friends were deported to the place they fled, and their agreement was secured through extortion,” the letter continued. “Because of the exploitation of their situation at the hands of the government, their lives are in danger.”
The group of migrants then asked Netanyahu to suspend the “voluntary” returns – saying that they entail returning the asylum seekers to the same regime from which they fled lifelong military service and a lack of democracy.
“It is important to us to emphasise that we didn’t come here in order to bother Israelis or destroy their homes,” the letter read. “We didn’t come here to look for work or money. In every place on Earth they recognise the fact that people who flee Eritrea need protection until the regime changes and they can return home.”
Earlier this month, a group of 15 Eritreans was deported from Israel to Eritrea after they signed an agreement with Israeli authorities to leave. All 15 signed the agreement while in detention centres in the south, and their only alternative to “voluntary” deportation was to stay imprisoned indefinitely under the anti-infiltration law.
According to Interior Ministry figures, the overwhelming majority of the around 55,000 African migrants in Israel are from Eritrea.
