Israel coerces immigrants to leave, rights group claims

JERUSALEM, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- Israel is pressuring nearly 7,000 immigrants from Eritrea and Sudan to leave the country, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch claimed Tuesday.

A report by the group, based in New York, says the immigrants were detained unlawfully and denied access to asylum procedures, and were sent back to their original countries in what was described as "unlawful coercion." At least 6,400 Sudanese and 367 Eritreans were sent back after reaching Israel, it says.

HRW added it had seven documented cases of Sudanese citizens who were interrogated by police when they returned home. Four were released soon after, but one was tortured, another was jailed in solitary confinement and a third was "charged with treason for visiting Israel," a crime in Sudan.

Under international law, Israel is obligated to offer certain protections to asylum seekers, but insists the migrants are in Israel in search of economic opportunity and not political asylum. HRW countered by pointing out immigrants are typically offered a choice between leaving Israel and facing "indefinite detention" in a remote Negev Desert facility where no work is performed.

"International law is clear that when Israel threatens Eritreans and Sudanese with lifelong detention, they aren't freely deciding to leave Israel and risk harm back home," said Gerry Simpson, author of the report.

Mark Regev, spokesman of Israel's prime minister's office, noted, "Israel does not forcibly deport these people. They have the possibility to be in Israel safely and to have all their humanitarian needs met," adding that "the overwhelming majority of these people are illegal job seekers and are not coming here for refugee reasons."

Although Israeli rights groups have recently made claims similar to those in the HRW report, the Israeli government routinely refers to the immigrants as "infiltrators" and not asylum seekers.