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| Agnes Samson Nagune Isharo lives at Israel's Ketziot Prison. Adam Reynolds/Special to The Christian Science Monitor |
Israelis extend mixed welcome to Sudanese
Israelis weigh concerns about their moral responsibility and the refugees' economic and demographic impact.
from the August 31, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
"One of the problems is that we don't really have a refugee law," says Lisa Richlen, a field officer with the Hotline for Migrant Workers. "The 'infiltrators law' is being applied to them, which means they can be held indefinitely without being given a judicial review."
The Hotline and groups such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel have brought the battle to the Supreme Court to try to force examination of refugee applications on a case-by-case basis.
Meanwhile, those dealing with the problem on a daily basis are having to scramble. Prison officials, for example, complain they haven't been given the budget or capacity to deal with the influx of refugees and are having to scrape money from already taxed budgets. In September, they expect to open another camp to accommodate families.
Mr. Olmert has also ordered the Interior Ministry to study construction of a reinforced border fence with Egypt. Long stretches through the desert are delineated only with barbed wire. Bedouin on the Egyptian side look for – or create – weak spots and, for a price, help direct refugees to them.
That is how Samia, another woman held here in Ketziot, managed to get through. She left Darfur after she'd lost countless relatives and her husband, who was abducted by the Sudanese military. That was three years ago. Since then, she's been working odd cleaning jobs in Cairo, sometimes not being paid at all.
It was after a demonstration of Sudanese refugees living in such conditions in Cairo in 2005 that she decided to leave. Egyptian police opened fire on the crowd, killing 27 people. When she'd saved enough, she went to a smuggling agent and paid him $400.
Samia and others got taken to the Sinai desert by bus, then walked for about three days, she says, until they were led to where they could cross into Israel. "The Israeli soldiers saw us coming and waved us over, and said, 'Welcome, welcome.'"
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