By some estimates, 60,000 African asylum-seekers — mainly from Sudan
and Eritrea —
reside in Israel . For these men, women and children, the journey to the country is perilous: traversing hostile countries, often encountering bandits and facing the Egyptian and Sinai deserts before they even reach the border. Many who start the journey don’t make it. For those who do, they face a kind of purgatory rather than a home.
reside in Israel . For these men, women and children, the journey to the country is perilous: traversing hostile countries, often encountering bandits and facing the Egyptian and Sinai deserts before they even reach the border. Many who start the journey don’t make it. For those who do, they face a kind of purgatory rather than a home.
In Israel, these asylum-seekers are offered a temporary visa —
called the 2(A)5 – that has to be renewed every three months, though they are
not allowed to work. The State of Israel does not provide them with social
assistance, and so many become cheap labor for various service industries, working,
for example, as hotel housecleaners and groundskeepers while remaining under
constant threat of arrest and detention.
Today, border crossings by asylum seekers has almost completely
stopped – largely because of the 90-mile fence that Israel built on the border.
(The government used African workers in its construction.) And while the exodus
may have slowed to a trickle, the harsh realities of this purgatory remain.
