Israeli Court Denied the NGO’s Request for an Interim Order That Would Prevent Asylum Seekers who Refuse to Leave From Being Imprisoned in “Saharonim”

Human rights organizations that filed a second petition opposing forced expulsion of asylum seekers to a third country have responded to the Beer Sheva District Court’s decision which was handed down today (Sunday 19.7). The court denied the request of the organizations for an interim order which would prevent those who refuse to leave from being imprisoned in “Saharonim” until the court reaches a decision on the petition itself.

“It is very unfortunate to discover that the court is satisfied by the State’s ambiguous answers about the fate of those who leave to a third country under the cover of a dubious secret agreement, while concrete testimonies attesting to the reality that those leaving are arrested and required to leave the third country did not receive sufficient weight”, said Attorneys Anat Ben Dor and Aelad Cahana from the Refugee Rights Clinic at the Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law, who filed the petition. “It is the State’s responsibility to provide the information and to track the situation of those who have left. We hope that following the hearing on the petition itself, the court will strike down the unconstitutional agreement, which enables individuals to be indefinitely imprisoned, only because they are legitimately afraid of the dangers awaiting them in a country that has not in any way undertaken to ensure their safety.”