Netanyahu and Pelosi meet in Jerusalem
Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO
House Democrats ask Netanyahu to release African migrants
Delegation of American Congressmen led by House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi send letter to PM urging him to release Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers before Passover holiday and find 'durable solutions, including in Israel' for them.
A delegation of US House Democrats that visited Israel this week sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to release the Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers imprisoned in the Saharonim Prison, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA).
A letter sent from the office of House of Representatives Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, who led the visit to Israel and Jordan, detailed the delegation's meetings representatives of the African asylum seekers.
Pelosi said in the letter that the asylum seekers told the visiting Congressmen about the abuse and human rights violations they faced in Sudan and Eritrea.
Netanyahu meets with House Democrats delegation (Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO)
The letter, which was sent a day after the delegation's meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Pelosi cited a ruling by Israel's High Court of Justice which determined the government could not forcefully expel the asylum seekers, noting there is therefore no legal justifications for their "continued detention."
"We hope these detainees will be released before the Passover holiday and that durable solutions, including in Israel, can be found," Pelosi wrote on behalf of the delegation's members.
Earlier this week, the High Court granted the state a two week extension to reply to a petition against the government-led plan to deport illegal African migrants from Israel, extending the deadline to April 9. The expulsion, which was due to start April 1, will therefore be postponed by at least eight days.
The Population and Immigration Authority called at the beginning of the year on migrants from Sudan and Eritrea to leave "to their country or to a third country," meaning Rwanda or Uganda. Those who leave by the end of March will be given $3,500, along with airfare and other incentives.
Asylum seekers leaving Holot (Photo: Reuters)
The ultimatum is part of a large-scale campaign to remove 42,000 illegal African migrants from Israel.
In its request, the state noted that the extension is being sought in order “to allow for the senior legal and political echelons to consider the subject more closely."
In addition, the state asked to submit to the court on Monday a confidential document that it said will “present an additional reason of weight that underlies the extension request that can be presented to the court only.”
The request was filed in response to two separate petitions against the government’s program to deport the migrants, thousands of whom made their way into Israel via its once porous southern border.
The first was submitted by 119 human rights activists while the second was filed by attorney Avigdor Feldman who said in response to the state’s request that he agreed with the extension but opposed the presentation of a confidential document.
