15. Oktober 2012 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Hunger strike at Saharonim camp (Israel) · Kategorien: Israel · Tags:

A few hundred of African detainees protested against the ‘infiltrators
law’ last week, sending back meals for a couple days to protest the law
that allows for them to be jailed for up to three years without trial for
illegally entering Israel, the Israel Prisons Service (IPS) said Monday.

Plusieurs centaines de retenus Africains du camp de Saharonim (south
Neguev) ont renvoyé leurs repas pendant plusieurs jours pour protester
contre la nouvelle loi sur les infiltrations qui permet d’emprisonner
pendant trois ans sans procès préalable toute personne entrée
„illégalement“ depuis la frontière sud du pays.

Ben Hartman for the Jerusalem Post, 15 of October 2012
Migrants in prison protest ‘infiltrators law‘

http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=287909

African migrants send back meals at Saharonim Prison, protesting law
allowing them to be jailed for up to 3 years.

A few hundred African migrants protested against the ‘infiltrators law’
last week, sending back meals for a couple days to protest the law that
allows for them to be jailed for up to three years without trial for
illegally entering Israel, the Israel Prisons Service (IPS) said Monday.

IPS spokeswoman Sivan Weitzman said that between 400-500 migrants held at
Saharonim Prison sent back meals over the course of two days last week.
Weitzman said the IPS only considers a protest a hunger strike once an
inmate has refused over six meals.

African migrants in south Tel Aviv said this week that the protest began
on the 8th of October when a group of a few dozen Eritrean women recruited
the rest of the around 1,000 Eritrean detainees in Saharonim to go on
strike, after they found out that they stood to be jailed for three years.
Many of those who went on strike were also reportedly under the impression
that they could possibly be returned to Egypt.

Activists said the strike continued until Sunday and that four of the
hunger strikers were taken to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba for treatment
and others were given infusions by prison officials. Weitzman denied the
report, saying that none of them needed to be hospitalized, only that a
few were given medical treatment at the prison. She added that “there are
always people being hospitalized [from Saharonim] at Soroka for different
reasons, like malaria, tuberculosis, etc.”

The hunger strike took place at the same time that Interior Minister Eli
Yishai paid a highly-publicized visit to Saharonim in order to observe the
construction of the nearby detention facilities being built to house
thousands of African refugees, and set to be completed in the coming
months. Yishai arrived at the main gate of Saharonim, gave a short press
conference and then was taken inside Saharonim for a visit, before leaving
minutes later.

No press was allowed inside the prison to accompany Yishai.

In August, Yishai announced that he would start arresting North Sudanese
on October 15, followed by Eritreans shortly thereafter. Following a
petition issued by human rights organizations earlier this month,
Jerusalem District Court Judge Nava Ben-Or issued a preliminary injunction
last Thursday which bans the arrests. The next hearing on the issue is
scheduled for October 30, 2012.

Sara Robinson of Amnesty International Israel’s Refugees branch issued a
statement on Monday called on Israel to „immediately release without
condition the jailed asylum seekers and to abandon plans to build more
detention centers for them.“

She also called on the state of Israel to honor the asylum seekers basic
rights and said the law for the prevention of infiltration violates
Israel’s obligations to international law

In an internal Welfare Ministry document sent to the national planning and
construction council, the ministry said that the conditions in the tent
city and permanent detention centers for asylum seekers in the Negev are
„unreasonable“ and not humane enough, Haaretz reported on Monday.

Passed last January, the so-called „Infiltrators Law“ went into effect in
June and allows the state of Israel to jail for up to three years people
who have entered the country illegally.

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