CAIRO: A new “Prevention of Infiltration Law” was passed in the Israeli parliament on Tuesday morning, allowing the automatic and prolonged detention of anyone who enters Israel without permission. Failing to differentiate between migrants facing deportation and asylum-seeking persons, the new law was catered specifically to target asylum-seekers entering the Israeli state from the Egyptian border. Once arrested, detainees can now be held without charge or trial for three or more years. The law also allows for the indefinite detention of any person from a country considered “hostile” to Israel, including Sudan. Children travelling with their parents are also unconditionally subjected to the new law. Human rights group Amnesty International called the move an “affront to international law,” in a press release published Wednesday. “Passing and implementing this law flies in the face of Israel's obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention and other international human rights instruments,” said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International's Interim Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “Israel has the right to protect its borders, but it does not have the right to abandon its international human rights obligations to asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants, or to criminalize them as ‘infiltrators,' which only fuels xenophobia and discrimination,” she continued. According to the 1951 Convention, a refugee, or someone who has fled their country for a well-founded reason, cannot be deported from the country to which he or she escapes and must be granted basic rights. However, in essence, the new law contradicts this obligation, allowing refugees to be treated as criminals merely by the virtue of their situation. Observers expect legal challenges to the law to emerge, though it was passed with a vote of 37 to 8. Asylum-seekers from Eritrea and Sudan often make the trip through Egypt to Israel, though the journey has become more perilous as reports of attacks in the Sinai peninsula are on the rise. The new law is meant to further deter people from attempting to enter Israel. Currently, asylum-seekers caught crossing the border are detained for a few weeks before being released. Amnesty International also reported that Israel has an immigration detention center planned that will be able to hold 10,000 detainees, making it the largest such facility globally. “Israel should deal with asylum-seekers and undocumented migrants in keeping with its stated values and obligations. It should abandon plans to build more immigration detention facilities,” urged Harrison of Amnesty International. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/4oq7R Tags: Asylum Seekers, featured, Israel Section: Human Rights, Latest News
