Israel admitted this week that it has not finished examining a single
one of the 1,404 asylum applications filed by migrants in the country's
detention centers. The state also told the High Court of Justice
recently that most of these migrants are labor seekers, rather than
refugees, despite having failed to complete a detailed investigation
into their backgrounds.
Both
of these statements were written in briefs filed in response to a
petition against a new law that allows anyone who crosses the border
illegally to be jailed for three years or more.
In
a brief filed two weeks ago, the state asserted that most illegal
migrants have come to Israel for economic reasons. Paragraph 44, for
instance, said the new law – an amendment to the Prevention of
Infiltration Law – was meant “to stem the wave of infiltration, of
substantial dimensions, that Israel has suffered in recent years, which
is mainly a wave of economic migration.” Similarly, Paragraph 90 said
the law was meant to stop “large-scale economic migration.”
But
in a supplementary brief filed this week, in response to the
petitioners’ request for further information, the state admitted that it
had not yet finished examining any asylum requests.
