The United Nations on Sunday night criticized Israel’s policy towards illegal immigrants, as thousands of them protested in Tel Aviv, demanding that Israel recognize them as refugees and grant them asylum.
The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) released a statement in which it accused Israel of “sowing fear and chaos” among the illegal aliens who, it said, should be referred to as “asylum seekers” and not “infiltrators”.
Meanwhile, thousands of African migrants marched from Levinsky towards foreign embassies in Tel Aviv. The protesters are hoping to call attention to the state’s refusal to recognize the migrants’ asylum requests.
The refugees are planning to deliver letters to the foreign embassies in hopes of gaining foreign support for their cause, according to Israeli media reports. Stops on their march include the embassies of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Britain, Ethiopia, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Hundreds of asylum seekers were chanting “we are refugees, no more prison” outside the US embassy in Tel Aviv, escorted by Israeli police units.
The plight of African asylum-seekers in Israel popped onto the radar of human rights advocates outside Israel due to measures taken by Israel which might violate international refugee conventions.
Israel recently approved an amendment to the law to prevent infiltration of illegal immigrants, which allows police to jail illegal migrants for up to 12 months in special detention facilities.
Of the Africans that have arrived in recent years seeking asylum, less than one percent have received refugee status.
In comparison, in the rest of the world, 43 percent of refugees from Sudan and 81 percent of refugees from Eritrea that request asylum receive refugee status, according to the Israel Knesset Research and Information Center.
An estimated number of 30,000 migrants participated in a march that began in Tel Aviv’s Levinsky Park and ended with a demonstration in Rabin Square on Sunday to protests for being treated with dignity and acknowledgment of their refugee status.
