Israel slammed for migrants' treatment

Israel has coerced nearly 7,000 Eritrean and Sudanese nationals to return to their home countries, where they face the risk of serious punishment and abuse, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) released Tuesday.

According to HRW, some returning Sudanese have faced torture, arbitrary detention, and treason charges by the anti-Israel government in Khartoum, while returning Eritreans also are at risk of harassment and punishment for evading indefinite military service.

The report says Israel has rejected 99.9 percent of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum claims, and refers to those who enter the country illegally through its southern border as "infiltrators."

Around 50,000 Eritreans and Sudanese have entered Israel since 2006 through its border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Detention centers

Israel for the past several years has been placing Eritrean and Sudanese immigrants in detention centers in the Negev desert (pictured at top), where they must observe curfews and are unable to work in the vicinity.

HRW, citing statements by senior Israeli officials including former Interior Minister Eli Yishai, says the aim of the policy is to make life so unbearable for the migrants that they might leave Israel on their own.

"Destroying people's hope of finding protection by forcing them into a corner and then claiming they are voluntarily leaving Israel is transparently abusive," said the report's author, Gerry Simpson. "Eritreans and Sudanese in Israel are left with the choice of living in fear of spending the rest of their days locked up in desert detention centers or of risking detention and abuse back home."

Israel justifies its asylum policy by saying the country is too small to grant the asylum requests. It instead grants the migrants temporary permits allowing them to stay in certain cities for limited periods of time.

Those living and working in city centers are pressured by the Israeli government to report to the detention centers if they want their asylum request to be considered. Israel also encourages migrants to leave the country by offering them money and trying to get third countries to take them.

dr/msh (dpa, AP)