JERUSALEM: Sudanese asylum seekers who fled battered region of Darfur ask for refuge in Israel

Around 60 refugees of the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur staged a protest on Sunday (July 8) outside the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, calling on the Jewish state to provide them with shelter. In recent months some 1,100 refugees have fled Sudan through Egypt and illegally crossed into Israel, seeking asylum. Upon infiltrating the country, the Sudanese are being transported by the Israeli army from the border to the southern Israeli town of Beersheva. Local authorities, students and volunteers struggle to find them temporary shelter at communal farms or Bedouin camps in the southern Negev region, in the absence of a government policy or any kind of funding. The Sudanese, a mixture of Muslims and Christians, are considered illegal by the Israeli government, which does not have diplomatic relations with Khartoum. The flow of refugees into Israel prompted a nation-wide controversy over whether the country should grant them refugee status. In a bid to draw parliamentary attention to their plight, families of refugees sat outside the Israeli parliament house in Jerusalem and protested against Israel's lack of government funding and inaction regarding the welfare of Darfurians and other Sudanese refugees. The Sudanese were backed by the Israeli Committee for the Advancement of Refugees from Darfur, which acts to help the stranded Sudanese. "Israel has a very serious challenge," Eytan Schwartz, spokesman of the Israeli NGO said. "There are Sudanese refugees entering the country, asking asylum. The problem is on the one hand they are genocide survivors and we must accept them, and on the other hand they are nationals of an enemy state, of Sudan which is an enemy of Israel and therefore they are treated not as refugees but as infiltrators into the country and of agents of an enemy state. So these two questions, how should we treat these people - as genocide survivors and let's take them in, or as infiltrators and us reject them - that question has caused the situation we see here today." Many Israelis who are concerned about the plight of the Sudanese, in particular students from the southern part of Israel who work with the asylum seekers, claim the government is not providing enough care for the Sudanese. "Essentially, what we are demanding from the Israeli government is the Sudanese refugees that are currently in Israel should be treated as refugees and at the same time Israel should seal off the border and reach some kind of international agreement that would prevent more Sudanese from coming in," Schwartz said. "Once these Sudanese enter Israel they can never return to Sudan because they will be killed there, and according to their own account, if they return to Egypt they'd suffer there as well," Schwartz said. The government has not yet determined how to handle the growing number of Sudanese crossing the border. Although officials say Israel will not deport the Sudanese to Egypt, the government has not yet granted them refugee status. Police estimates that between 15 and 20 Sudanese cross the desert border into Israel each day. So far, Israel says it has no plans on working with the Egyptians to seal the border and no timetable for clear legislation on the fate of the asylum seekers.

ITN Source | July 10, 2007

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