{"id":6850,"date":"2021-04-07T10:50:55","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T07:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotline.org.il\/?p=6850"},"modified":"2021-04-07T10:50:55","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T07:50:55","slug":"statedepartment2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotline.org.il\/en\/statedepartment2020\/","title":{"rendered":"US State Department’s annual report on Human Rights criticizes Israel’s Immigration Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

On March 30, 2021, the U.S. State Department\u2019s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor published its annual Human Rights report on all countries receiving assistance and all United Nations member states in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974. Among other human rights violations, the report criticized the following areas of Israel\u2019s immigration policy<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Indefinite administrative detention of irregular migrants<\/strong>: \u201cIrregular migrants subject to deportation, including those claiming but unable to prove citizenship of countries included in Israel\u2019s non-refoulement policy, were subjected to indefinite detention if they refused to depart after receiving a deportation order. At the end of 2018, there were 165 migrants with undetermined or disputed citizenship in detention<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDetention without trial and for an indefinite period<\/em><\/strong>: Detention of irregular migrants who were \u201cimplicated in criminal proceedings\u2026 In 2017 the Supreme Court ruled that the legality of this policy required additional review, but it had not issued any guidance by year\u2019s end<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Restrictions on freedom of movement<\/strong>: \u201cThe law allows the government to detain asylum seekers from countries to which government policy prohibits deportation for a period of three months. The government may detain, without trial and for an indefinite period, irregular migrants who were \u201cimplicated in criminal proceedings\u201d\u2026 Authorities prohibited asylum seekers released from detention after arrival in the country from residing in Eilat, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Petah Tikva, Netanya, Ashdod, and Bnei Brak\u2013cities that already had a high concentration of asylum seekers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Insufficient protection from violence by government employees: <\/strong>\u00a0No \u201cexternal body to which migrants could file complaints if subjected to violence by The Population and Immigration Authority (PIBA), unlike police or the IPS.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Departure under coercion and false promises by the Israeli government<\/strong>: \u201cThe government offered incentives to irregular migrants to leave the country and go to Uganda, including a paid ticket and a stipend. The government claimed the third-country government provided for full rights under secret agreements with Israel, but NGOs and UNHCR confirmed that migrants who arrived at the destination did not receive residency or employment rights. From January 1 to September 30, a total of 663 irregular migrants departed the country under pressure, compared with 2,024 in 2019. NGOs claimed many of those who departed to other countries faced abuses in those countries and that this transfer could amount to refoulement.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Preventing UNHCR monitoring<\/strong>: Preventing \u201cUNHCR access to monitor regularly the detention facility at Ben Gurion Airport.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Preventing asylum seekers from obtaining work permits<\/strong>: \u201cGovernment policies on the legality of work forced many refugees to work in \u201cunofficial\u201d positions, making them more susceptible to poor treatment and questionable work practices by their employers<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Insufficient protection of asylum seekers\u2019 salaries<\/strong>: After the Supreme Court struck down a law that required employers to deduct 20 percent of an asylum seeker\u2019s salary as an incentive to encourage their departure from the country, it was discovered by PIBA that \u201ca gap of 710 million shekels ($217.6 million) existed between the funds deducted from asylum seekers\u2019 salaries and the funds deposited for them by employers\u2026 In addition, 3,445 asylum seekers had not yet applied for their refund by year\u2019s end<\/em>\u201d most of them (according to the HRM\u2019s experience), as a result of lack of proper documents.<\/p>\n

Dismal refugee recognition rate<\/strong>: \u201cThe government has established a system for providing protection to refugees, but it has rarely granted a refugee status<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preventing access to asylum procedures<\/strong>: \u201cThe government did not accept initial asylum claims at airports\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Restrictions on the right to property: \u201c<\/strong>The law bars migrants from sending money abroad, limits the amount they may take with them when they leave to minimum-wage earnings for the number of months they resided in the country, and defines taking additional money out of the country as a money-laundering crime<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Limited access to basic services<\/strong>: \u201cthe government for the most part did not provide asylum seekers with public social benefits.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Segregation<\/strong>: \u201cseveral municipalities illegally segregated children of asylum seekers and other children in schools and kindergartens<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 30, 2021, the U.S. State Department\u2019s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor published its annual Human Rights report on all countries receiving assistance and all United Nations member states in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974. Among other human rights violations, the report criticized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotline.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotline.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotline.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotline.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotline.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotline.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotline.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotline.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotline.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotline.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}