With protests by African asylum seekers all over the Israeli and international media, today the leader of one of Israel’s preeminent refugee rights groups talks to Ameinu about her organization’s work and the current climate for refugees and asylum seekers in Israel.
Advocate Michal Pinchuk, 42, ASSAF CEO: studied law as a young woman with the strong belief that legal advocacy is a beneficial tool for the creation of change in the situation of human rights in Israel.
Michal began her career as a human rights advocate: She began working in the Center for the
Defense of the Individual representing individual residents of East Jerusalem and the Occupied territories. Michal then began working in the Association for Civil Rights in Israel where she managed various topics over the years which included the topic of migrant workers in Israel and privatization processes amongst others.
Michal has been ASSAF’s CEO for 3 years.
At the end of the traditional 4 Questions Column is ASSAF’s Call For Action. We include it to provide our international followers with a practical opportunity to take part in the historical protest happening in Israel these days.
Ameinu joins ASSAF in encouraging our friends, members and activists to participate in this effort, share it with your friends and get updated on how you can personally support the asylum seekers’ struggle.
AMEINU: Can you describe the founding of ASSAF?
ASSAF: ASSAF was founded out of need. In 2007, Yiftach Milo, who is currently ASSAF’s chair, and Orit Rubin, who until recently ran ASSAF’s psychosocial support project, had both recently returned from Africa after having worked in refugee camps.
Concerned with the lack of an official policy towards the growing number of refugees arriving in Israel from Sudan, they joined a grassroots group of students from Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva who shared the same concerns, and together they formed ASSAF.
In the beginning, the organization operated out of Yiftach’s living room and kitchen. In its early stages, ASSAF provided direct assistance to refugees, while also working with decision makers and the public to advocate for a policy that would provide support to the incoming refugees.
Today, ASSAF is situated in an office in south Tel Aviv. Out of 12 employees, three are refugees themselves, who work as facilitators – offering translation and support for refugees who come to ASSAF for help. Essential to ASSAF’s everyday work are the 75 volunteers and interns who assist us in numerous projects.
AMEINU: What is the current situation for asylum seekers in Israel
ASSAF: The current situation of asylum seekers in Israel is extremely difficult and complex. This vulnerable population of 54,000 lives in the country without any status whatsoever, lacking the most basic human rights. Without access to welfare or medical care, asylum seekers’ social and medical problems go unattended. Since they leave their countries with nothing more than their lives, the majority of this population is very poor. Many families suffer from a constant lack of sufficient nutrition and clothing. Although worker’s rights do apply to working refugees, many are taken being denied pay entirely.
State policy toward refugees is increasingly draconic: having decided to put a stop to the inflow of refugees coming into the country from Egypt, Israel built an impenetrable fence along the border. The inflow of refugees did stop once the building ended, yet the state also decided to make the lives of those already in the country as difficult as possible, in order to persuade them to leave.
Tzigi, an asylum seeker from Eritrea who works at ASSAF, says: “But where can I leave to? My life is in danger in my home country and I can’t legally enter any other country. I don’t have a choice but to be where I am now, in Israel.”
This December the government, in an effort to bypass a Supreme Court ruling against previous legislation concerning the refugees, voted for the opening of an “open facility” where the asylum seekers are free to come and go during the day. Yet this “open facility” is operated by the Israeli Prison Service, and those held there are counted three times a day, must be present at night and are not allowed to work. The facility is located adjacent to the jail where most imprisoned asylum seekers were previously held. During the last week of December and the beginning of January, the immigration police held man hunts in Tel Aviv and other cities, arresting any asylum seeker they could put their hands on. Some were immediately imprisoned, while others were released and told to come to the “open facility” within 30 days for an indefinite amount of time. This included fathers who are the sole breadwinners in their home.
An unprecedented protest by the refugees began forming in the beginning of January in reaction to the government’s recent decision and actions. The various refugee communities joined forces and decided to take significant steps to stand up for their rights. Thousands of refugees throughout the country took part in a three-day strike from January 5th through 7th. On January 5th a massive rally took place in Tel Aviv, where an approximated 20,000 refugees and Israeli supporters participated. The protestors held signs with sayings such as “Freedom Yes, Prison No!”, “We Are Refugees” and others. On January 8th, approximately 10,000 asylum seekers demonstrated outside of the Knesset building in Jerusalem, staging one of the largest protests in front of the Knesset in recent years. The protests will continue until Israel’s policy improves.
I hope the latest developments in this movement will result in a significant improvement to the situation of refugees in Israel.
AMEINU: What type of services, programs and activities does ASSAF undertake?
ASSAF: ASSAF has grown much more organized and professional since its early days, but its focus remains similar to when it was first established: providing both emotional and practical support to refugees, as well as advocating for their rights amongst decision makers and the general public. Our direct aid includes various types of support, from helping someone understand his worker’s rights as a dishwasher in a hotel, to forming educational frameworks for children with special needs, to providing a weekly therapist to someone who needs this service in order to improve her coping mechanisms with trauma from the past and current difficult situation.
ASSAF assists some of the weakest segments of the refugee population, including single mothers and people with disabilities. In recent years we have aided many torture victims – those who were tortured in their home countries, or in torture camps in the Sinai desert, where they were held for ransom by human traffickers who torture and rape their victims daily in order to pressure families to pay high sums of money for the release of their loved one. To adequately care for this extremely vulnerable portion of the population, ASSAF has a social worker who focuses exclusively on providing support to victims of torture.
ASSAF also runs a youth club, where young refugees can enjoy a few carefree hours of fun, separated from their difficult life situation in a safe and accepting environment. Here they can receive help with their studies, take part in extracurricular activities, and eat a warm meal.
ASSAF’s advocacy and public awareness department uses the knowledge gained by the direct support staff to pinpoint the various needs and lack of services of the refugee population in Israel and advocate for their implementation. By writing to and meeting with decision makers, taking part in Knesset (parliament) committees, sending press releases and providing interviews, implementing specific campaigns and organizing lectures, this department is crucial to ASSAF’s mission to affect change in Israel’s refugee policy. Targeted topics of recent projects have included the needs of refugees with physical or mental disabilities, the plight of torture victims, and the difficult situation facing refugee children, especially those not yet at the age of compulsory free education.
All members of my staff, as well as our many volunteers, are with ASSAF because they believe that African refugees in Israel have a right to live a decent, respectful life. We also believe that as humans, and especially as Jews, we cannot ignore the extremely dire situation of refugees in Israel, and will do all we can to improve this situation.
AMEINU: What is the popular opinion of refugees in Israel?
ASSAF: The situation of refugees in Israel is extremely complex and was made more so by an offensive governmental policy which for years was unclear, refusing to make decisions concerning the entrance of the refugees into the country and refusing to check requests for asylum, yet directly leading approximately half of the refugees to live in the already poor and neglected area of south Tel Aviv.
For me it is very exciting to see the support that many Israelis are giving the refugees following the latest protests. Those who once refused to speak on behalf of refugees, like the many employers who are ironically suffering most from the strike, are now announcing their support, and joining many others who until now were silent in this national debate to claim human and worker’s rights for the refugees. But we cannot ignore the other voices, those who have been the loudest in the past few years, headed by right wing politicians. These voices continue to be completely intolerant of the refugees, speaking with hatred and, what I see as blindness to the pain of other human beings.
CALL FOR ACTION January 5, 2014
African political asylum seekers in Israel struggle for Freedom and Refugee Rights
International community: We urge you to advocate that Israel stop our imprisonment and starts respecting refugee rights! Israel’s latest policy of arbitrary detention for endless time without trial continues to humiliate our community. We are turning to you for help and asking you to mobilize towards demonstrations at Israeli Embassies on 22 of January 2014.
In the last few weeks, a range of unprecedented policy changes towards African asylum seekers and refugees have caused us to take drastic measures to display our discontent, frustration and fear.
About 50,000 African asylum seekers and refugees live in Israel. We have fled persecution, forced military conscription, dictatorship, civil wars and genocide. Instead of being treated as refugees by the government of Israel, we have been treated as criminals.
The Israeli government members have called us a “cancer”, propagating that we are “infiltrators” that have come to seek employment. The Israeli Government’s ongoing incitement and hate speech towards us has led to racial violence and hate crimes against our community.
On December 11, 2013 the government of Israel passed a new amendment to the Prevention of Infiltration law, in response to the recent High Court of Justice (HCJ) decision that overturned previous amendments to the law. In its decision, the Court called the law “a grave and disproportionate abuse of the right to personal freedom” and against Israel’s basic laws. The new amendments allow for one year of closed detention followed by indefinite detention without judicial review
Inspectors from the Population, Immigration and Border Authority (PIBA) have begun to arrest and detain hundreds of asylum seekers in Tel Aviv. In the last week of December 2013, PIBA announced its plan to require thousands of asylum seekers and refugees to register at Holot within 30 days. Despite assurances given by the Ministry of Interior that families would not be separated, tens of men with wives and children have been summoned. Panic has spread among the asylum seekers community in Israel, as immigration authorities have increasingly limited the ability to renew visas, leaving people vulnerable to losing their jobs and being arrested.
In the past two weeks, thousands of African asylum seekers and refugees took to the street in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to march for freedom, to oppose arrests, imprisonment and the disregard for refugee rights. We are now organizing to deliver our message calling on the international community to pressure Israel to stop its policy of detention and deportation and instead to call on Israel to recognize us as refugees and respect our human rights.
Specifically, we demand the Government of Israel to:
1. Cancel the new amendment to the Prevention of Infiltration Law; stop all arrests; and release all asylum seekers and refugees from prisons.
2. Start respecting the rights of refugees, including social rights, health and welfare benefits.
3. Check individual asylum claims in a fair and transparent way.
We demand the UNHCR takes responsibility. Specifically:
1. Hold Israel accountable to adhere to the refugee commission.
2. Monitor our asylum request process from start to finish, in a transparent and fair way adhering to international standards.
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We stand in unity and solidarity with our fellow communities of African Asylum Seekers and refugees struggling for their human rights in Europe and across the world.
Our common plight as refugees must be addressed by a joint struggle and demand for all countries to respect human rights and the UN Refugee Commission.
We call the international civil society to support our demands and pressure the Israeli Government to stop its inhumane policies and respect our human rights as refugees
What can you do to help?
– Hold demonstrations and direct actions at Israeli embassies and consulate offices in Europe, Canada, USA and around the world on the 22 of January 2014.
– Send a letter to the Israeli Embassy or consulate in your area to demand Israel stops its policies of detention and deportation recognizes us as refugees and respects our human rights.
– Send a letter to the UNHCR demanding accountability and responsibility for Israel’s fulfillment of our rights as refugees.
– Share our story and raise awareness to the struggle of African political asylum seekers in Israel. follow us on: Twitter @ Freedom4Refugee and Facebook @ Freedom4Refugees in Israel- International Solidarity
If you are organizing a demonstration or direct action, please notify us @ freedom4refugees@gmail.com
Thank you for your support.
Kind Regards,
African Asylum Seekers Community in Israel
Freedom4Refugees in Israel- International Solidarity
