http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.640672
Israel's High Court hears petition against third version of migrant detention law
Justices question automatic decision to hold illegal entrants for maximum 20 months in the controversial law.
By Ilan Lior | Feb. 3, 2015 | 4:50 AM
The High Court of Justice on Tuesday held its first hearing on a petition by human rights groups against a new amendment to the law to prevent illegal entry to Israel.
The previous two versions of the law were struck down by the court. An expanded bench of nine justices, headed by new High Court President Miriam Naor, is expected to rule on the case in coming months.
The amendment regulates the operation of the Holot detention center in the Negev, in which some 2,000 asylum-seekers from Sudan and Eritrea are being held.
It limits detention at Holot to 20 months and also permits the state to hold new asylum seekers who enter Israel illegally at Saharonim Prison.
Justice Uzi Fogelman, who wrote the majority opinion striking down the previous iteration of the amendment, said the new version had made progress. But he said “the claim is that because of the geographic location and low pocket money, the restriction of liberty remains the same restriction. That is the thing that has an implication for constitutionality.” Pocket money refers to the small stipends the prisoners receive every month.
At yesterday’s hearing the justices criticized the fact that the authorities send people to Holot for the maximum of 20 months without discretion.
When Justice Hanan Melcer asked whether the decision was automatically made to send the asylum seekers to Holot for 20 months “or even five, 10 or 15 months,” the state’s representative, Yochi Gnessin, said everyone was sent for 20 months.
“You don’t immediately fire the ultimate weapon, especially since the legislature gave discretion to the authorities to give an order of as long as 20 months,” Melcer said.
Gnessin rejected the petitioners’ claim that Holot was designed to break the detainees’ spirits and to encourage them to leave the country.
Gnessin told the court that 6,000 asylum seekers had left Israel last year, about 1,000 of them to third countries. Israel had reached agreement under which two of those countries would take hundreds more each month, Gnessin said.
Present during the first part of the hearing was MK Miri Regev (Likud), chairwoman of the Knesset Interior Committee, who had expedited passage of the new amendment.
After she left the courtroom, she criticized the justices, who she said were cut off from reality.
The petition was submitted in the name of Anwar, an asylum seeker from Sudan who has been held at Holot for about a year.
“After the hearing I feel there will be a good decision, like the previous ones. It cannot be that they put a person, without reason, without trial, in a facility for 20 months,” Anwar said after the hearing.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/high-court-hears-petition-to-strike-down-refugee-law-again/
High Court hears petition to strike down refugee law, again
Israeli NGOs hope to nullify amendment that allows for the detention of asylum seekers for 20 months
BY TAMAR PILEGGI AND TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF February 4, 2015, 12:41 am
The High Court of Justice heard a petition Tuesday against an amendment to the Prevention of Infiltration Law that allows for the detention of asylum seekers for up to 20 months without trial.
The petition, submitted to the court by Israeli human rights organizations on behalf of two migrant detainees, argued that the detention of asylum seekers was an attempt to coerce them to leave Israel.
Under the current version of the law, the state is allowed to imprison asylum seekers and refugees for up to 20 months at the Holot facility without trial. Holot is an “open” facility that is currently home to some 2,500 African asylum seekers in southern Israel
Attorney Oded Feller of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel argued that unlike other countries, Israel fails to offer refugees rights, protections or tools to integrate into society. He also noted that up until recently, the state did not provide a mechanism for Eritreans and Sudanese refugees to apply for asylum from inside Israel.
The High Court of Justice overturned similar amendments to the law in 2013 and 2014, citing human rights violations. In its September ruling, the court ruled that the detention of the asylum seekers for an unspecified amount of time was unconstitutional and ordered the Holot facility closed by December 22. The court granted the government three months to find an alternative policy before it repealed the law completely.
In light of that ruling, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, together with the Interior Ministry, made new amendments to the law in November which allowed illegal immigrants to be detained for up to 20 months without trial — a change that, in effect, allowed Holot to stay open.
However, Israeli human rights groups were quick to point out that the new amendment was practically identical to the previous one which was struck down by the High Court in September, prompting the new appeal.
Since 2006, Israel has struggled to establish and implement a clear legal framework to deal with the large influx of migrants, resulting in confusing and often conflicting ad hoc immigration policies. The influx has slowed dramatically of late, as Israel has sealed off its border with Egypt more effectively.
There are currently about 47,000 African migrants living in Israel, the vast majority of whom claim to be asylum seekers. More than 90 percent of them come from Eritrea, Sudan and the Congo, but Israel has recognized fewer than 1 percent of asylum claims, and since 2009, less than 0.15 percent — the lowest rate in the Western world.
The Israeli NGO Hotline for Migrant Workers said it expected a ruling on Tuesday’s petition within a few months.
Received on Wed Feb 04 2015 - 10:40:40 EST