Police sources were claiming arson, after a fire in the home of Eritrean immigrants in the early hours of Monday morning trapped 10 African workers, injuring four.
Firefighting units arriving at the Jerusalem migrant apartment shortly after 3am discovered graffiti at the scene reading “leave the neighbourhood” as they fought to free 10 Eritrean migrants from the burning building.
The incident occurred in the wake of increasingly violent demonstrations against rising numbers of African migrants in Israel and occurred hours after an announcement by Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu of plans to deport illegal immigrants from South Sudan, the Ivory Coast, Ghana and Ethiopia.
Over 1,000 people attended a recent rally demanding the deportation of migrants, as Israeli officials have been left swapping blame for who is responsible for the situation spiralling out of control. The migrants come in large part from Eritrea, a country renowned for its administration’s abuse of human rights. Whilst Western statistics claim that 83% of Eritrean asylum seekers are genuine refugees, there is little scope for determining the risk of denying them asylum and as such Europe has complied with the UN’s ruling that Eritreans are entitled to asylum and cannot be deported. Israel has also so far accepted deportation to Eritrea and Sudan is not an option.
During a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu is reported to have become impatient with the confused response by the relevant ministries to the growing problem, declaring “whoever can be sent away should be sent away from here as quickly as possible”. Recognising Eritreans and Sudanese as belonging to a different category of migrant, he said “it’s clear we cannot return Sudanese and Eritreans to their countries”, declaring instead than land should be expanded and developed in the Saharonim region of the Negev to accommodate genuine refugees.
Israel has been widely criticised for its reticence in presenting a definitive answer to the migrant problem. US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton presented her department’s 2011 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices last Thursday, which concluded that Sudanese and Eritrean migrants in Israel (accounting for about 85% of all African refugees in the country) “were not allowed access to asylum procedures but were given renewable ‘conditional release’ documents that deferred deportation and had to be renewed every few months”.
Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai condemned acts of violence in his city in an interview with Israeli radio on Thursday, but insisted the situation was the result of the government’s failure to provide a solution to the growing migrant problem. Huldai claimed that in denying migrants the right to work and refusing to deport or house them in specific camps, the administration offered them no other option than crime.
Huldai revealed the Tel Aviv municipality had been forced to spend millions of taxpayer’s money to create schools and infrastructure to house migrant majorities in neighbourhoods such as the Hatikva area of the city, arguing: “They are human beings. What can I do, I can’t see human beings thrown into the street”.
Fire commissioner Asaf Abras referred to Monday’s suspected arson attack in Jerusalem as a “death trap”. He added the attack seemed to be targeted at killing the 10 resident foreign workers, rather than just serving as a protest, as the perpetrator had tried to light fire in the building’s hallways, blocking their escape. He concluded the results “could have been much more tragic”.
Four Eritreans were sent to Shaare Zedek Medical Centre for treatment for burns and smoke inhalation – all are now thought to be in a stable condition.
A South-Korean couple living in the building, which houses 40-50 mainly African residents, claimed the migrants have never caused any problem and they had no idea why their complex would be targeted.
The district attorney announced last week that ten minors had been charged with racially motivated attacks on African migrants, following the violent demonstrations in the Hatikva area of Tel Aviv the previous week. This is the first time African migrants have been subject to violence in Jerusalem, where the community falls far short of numbers recorded in Tel Aviv and Eilat.
Meanwhile, human rights groups have slammed Sunday’s statement by the Immigration Authority of moves to implement legislation to allow the detention of illegal immigrants for up to three years.
Oded Feller from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel claimed the government is “selling the public fantasies. There isn’t enough room to hold those who are already here and those that will come in the future”. Feller went on to say the majority of Eritrean and Sudanese migrants are genuine asylum seekers whom Israel should invest in re-housing instead of detaining.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ representative in Israel similarly rejected application of such laws for genuine asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan, saying: “Israel offers them protection and then turns around and calls them “infiltrators”. That’s a problem. Israel has to clear up its definitions.”
Elsewhere, Egyptian forces alerted by Israel Defence Force (IDF) units stationed in the Eilat mountains, prevented the entry of African migrants into Israel over the weekend. Thirty-six migrants trying to enter the country where a fence has yet to be erected, were reportedly stopped by Egypt. The IDF has stepped up the building of a fence to prevent entry into the country, as the majority of migrants do not heed warnings to refrain from entering Israel.
MK Ofir Akunis said, on a visit to the Egyptian border on Sunday to study the problem: “This is a national concern. There are two things that need to be done immediately: Complete the fence and return the infiltrators to their countries of origin or third country.”