Israeli Policy Toward African Asylum Seekers and Unauthorized Migrants

Abstract

This article sheds light on Israel’s practices against African asylum seekers and unauthorized immigrants. Since the mid-2000s, Israel has received a large influx of undocumented people from African countries. In order to curb unauthorized border crossings, Israel reached an agreement with Egypt for the return of unauthorized border crossers into Egypt, started building a border fence, and increased the number of detention centers. The 2012 amendment to the 1954 infiltration law made it so that any irregular border crosser was considered an infiltrator and therefore, detained. In 2015, Israel announced its forcible relocation policy. After examining asylum and migration dynamics in Israel and the governmental responses, this article identifies the pivotal roles played by Israeli human rights organizations and the Supreme Court in thwarting the government’s detention and forcible relocation policies.