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GOOD NEWS for Sudanese Asylum Seekers in Israel

The Israeli interior ministry has acceded to a court ruling and is beginning to grant temporary residence status to 2,445 Sudanese asylum seekers this year.

HIAS reports that it represents hundreds of such asylum seekers, the majority of whom live without social services or health benefits. About 435 HIAS clients were included in the Sudanese group. “This is great news for our clients, who have been in Israel without basic rights for over a decade,” said Nimrod Avigal, HIAS Israel’s deputy director and head of legal aid. In July 2017 a petition was sent to the Israeli High Court asking the state to at least grant A5 visas to any asylum seeker from Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, and the Blue Nile, since the state had neither processed their asylum claims nor had granted any of them refugee status. In 2018 HIAS filed over 600 individual appeals for people from those regions who applied for asylum; most of the clients had fled from genocide and ethnic violence in Sudan. Those hundreds of cases have been stuck in the legal system for several years, but the appeals were not in vain. They actually created pressure on the government by bringing the cases to the courts, said HIAS Israel’s country director Sivan Carmel. The status adjustment only applies to asylum seekers who applied before July 2017. HIAS would continue the fight for all asylum seekers who applied after that date as well as for family members of those who received the status.


It would be unfair for some asylum seekers to not be given rights just because they filed their requests a day, week, or month after the arbitrary deadline. The state notified the courts that Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, who once said she would move to return asylum seekers to their countries of origin, is in the final stages of putting together a list of updated criteria for deciding asylum requests by Sudanese seekers in accordance with developments in their home country. Israel has yet to formulate an official policy for adjudicating asylum requests, which means legal representation through the asylum process is crucial. Despite the positive turn of events, the situation remains precarious for many asylum seekers and the long-term questions endure.

“There is still a lot of uncertainty about what will happen next,” Carmel said. “Whatever the scenario may be, we will continue standing with the community.”




Read more at HIAS site: HERE

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