See below update and invitation to a press conference, from the asylum seekers who left Holot towards Egypt, sleeping, a second night, near Nizana border check point, refusing to return to prison.
Photos can be found at:
On the Hotline’s Facebook you can find more photos and videos, taken by the asylum seekers on the border:
https://www.facebook.com/HotlineForRefugeesAndMigrants?fref=ts
‚WE WILL NOT GO BACK TO INDEFINITE DETENTION“ – ASYLUM SEEKERS BY THE EGYPTIAN BORDER SPEAK OUT
PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY (SUNDAY, 29 June) 15:00, Levanda 16, Tel Aviv)
We are almost 1,000 Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers camped by Israel’s border with Egypt. We left Holot detention center on Friday. Members of the refugee community in Tel Aviv will be present. We will be answering questions by phone from the border. After two weeks of strike inside the detention center, we have decided to leave once and for all. We tried to cross the border into Egypt on Friday but we were stopped by the Israeli army.
We are in dire need of basic supplies. But we cannot continue living in a cage in the desert, with no release date and no judicial review. The Israeli government has turned a deaf ear to our cries and has dismissed out of hand our rights as refugees and as people. We are not criminals. We will stay near the Egyptian border until a solution is found that respects our rights as refugees.
UNHCR representative has visited us yesterday and we called on him to take the responsibility for our situation from the Israeli immigration authorities. Israeli Member of Knesset Michal Rozin have arrived to show her support.
We will be forced to continue our journey to cross the border if our calls are not met.
For questions, call:
In Tel Aviv
Philemon 0549822094
Mussa 0542038409
Noraldin 0533308476
By the border:
Hassan – 0548897980
Tashome- +972-54-2697194
Habtom – +972-54-3465480
More information:
African Asylum Seekers walked out of Israel’s Holot Detention Facility in protest of their inhumane and indefinite detention by Israeli authorities, marching to the Egypt-Israel border. Asylum seekers (from Eritrea and Sudan) ask to leave Israel, for the UNHCR and International community to take responsibility for them.
Those marching were physically prevented by the Israeli military to cross the border, they are currently sitting approximately 300 meters from the Egyptian border, refusing to return to Holot. This follows a two week protest within the detention center, and the removal of several activists to the nearby closed prison of Saharonim.
According to the government of israel new policy, eritrean and Sudanese individuals who have over five years in israeli have to sign go to holot detaintion center.
Holot is a prison located in the desert of Negev, built for Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers. Currently, there are more than 2.300 inmates. The government calls it as an open facility, but in fact it is a prison because we are locked inside different sections without a possibility of getting out. Even though they say; we can have 48 hours a month as a vacation, but actually doesn’t happen. The government imposes penalties, on account of our illegal entry or presence knowing for certain that we came from countries where our life and freedom are threatened.
Holot is illegal because it violates our rights to liberty, freedom and also our rights to life which are considered a fundamental human right.
The international standards state that everyone has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, but in Holot there is no even a basic medical treatment.
Therefore, the decision of stopping signing in and out will continue; since Holot is an open facility we see no need for us to sign three times a day. In addition, we made daily protests inside Holot starting from Thursday June 19, 2014 from 13:00 pm until 18:00 pm for the following demands:
1) If Holot is an open facility, then why and until when we stay here? And if it is a prison, then what is our crime?
2) Immediate reform to the medical system, and treat our patients immediately.
3) Immediate release of detainees who have been in prisons over 2 years, the victims of torture from Sinai and all the prisoners in Saharonim and Holot with legal status according to international standards.
4) We ask Israeli government to hand over our case to UNHCR, and we are hereby no longer asking for acceptance and for the UNHCR to resettle all of us to any third country.
5) Release our brothers arrested by the immigration police holot, who are suspected to be organizers of the demonstrations.
To our brothers and sisters all over the country, we know that you are subject to arbitrary arrest, detention and exile as we are. Therefore we have made a commitment to keep on struggling for our basic rights and we will never give up, the justice and equality will last forever.
To Israeli citizens we know that many of you do not agree with the harsh policies of the government, knowing that you are a people who know what it is like to suffer persecution. We are not your enemies. We entered Israel illegally because we had fled danger and needed a place of safety. We have no intention to harm Israelis, and we have no desire to destroy your home.
Now we decided to leave holot and go to israel-egypt border, no more tollerance to stay in prison, and we call international community to take care of us
Thank you.
Asylum seekers‘ commitee in holot.