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Refugee Problem
Granted temporary stay, illegal
African immigrants struggle.
Nearly 100
African refu-
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raid shelter
at night in
Tel Aviv.
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letetropo",t07
WERE PART OF THE TEAM
A16
February 21 e 2008
Dina Kraft
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Tel Aviv
A
rank stench rises up from
the basement shelter
crammed with mattresses
and blankets. There is only one bath-
room for the 170 Africans who live
here, and there is no shower. Most
have not bathed in weeks.
Several shelters like these are scat-
tered through the hard-luck streets
of south Tel Aviv. Funded mostly by
private donations and the city, they
are filling up as the Israeli government
grants hundreds of illegal African
migrants temporary shelter in the
country and, in some cases, work
permits because the situation in their
own countries is so unstable.
Some 800 Africans currently live
in the dank shelters of Tel Aviv. With
the government releasing scores more
currently being held in prison since
illegally entering Israel from neighbor-
ing Egypt, the shelters may get even
more crowded.
"Here it's better because you are
free said Filmon Jekleab, 22, an
Eriterian who came to the shelter after
three months at the Ketziot prison
in Israel's Negev desert, where the
Africans are housed in a makeshift
tent encampment.
His friend Ibrahani Tesgai, 26, who
deserted the Eritrean army, interjects
as he pours watery coffee from a
bowl into small plastic cups. "Here it's
almost prison',' he says.
There is no running water in the
shelter. A volunteer organization deliv-
ers food, sometimes sporadically.
All those in the shelters are asy-
lum seekers, but the small office in
Israel of the U.N. High Commissioner
for Refugees cannot review all their
cases. At the moment, the majority
are from the Ivory Coast and Eritrea.
The Eritreans have been granted work
visas by Israel's Interior Ministry
because of the instability in Eritrea,
but those from the Ivory Coast face
deportation because the U.N. has said
it is safe to return to that country now
that the war there is practically over.
Advocates for the Africans and Tel
Aviv officials say they welcome the
government's decision after months
of lobbying to release many of the
Africans who were imprisoned, but
they say the government in Jerusalem
is being irresponsible by not providing
any assistance.
On an almost daily basis, about
50 Africans arrive in Tel Aviv with
nowhere to go but these shelters. The
Welfare Ministry rejects the notion
that it should help them, saying the
ministry has no budget — or orders
— to do so.
Government officials have said they
are sympathetic to the Africans' plight
but are wary of Israel, a state the size
of New Jersey with a population of
some 7 million, being overwhelmed
by a flood of African migrants. Many
Israelis say the government first must
deal with its own needy communities
before helping disadvantaged foreign-
ers.
"There is a feeling of crisis:' said
Tally Krietzman, a lawyer from the
Tel Aviv University Refugee Rights
program who is trying to find the
Africans work. "The Ministry of
Interior is letting them stay and the
prisons are letting them out. But when
they come out they don't have a cent in
pocket and no Hebrew, so these people
are going to be dependent for a while