Israeli refugee centre keeps African migrants in limbo

In September the Israeli supreme court ruled that Holot detention centre should close within 90 days. Still open as the deadline looms, a film shot in April this year captures the lives of Sudanese and Eritrean refugees sent to this centre deep in the Negev desert.

The stark reality of Israel’s immigration policy is embodied in Holot, a detention centre situated in the middle of the Negev desert in southern Israel. It is a place that holds Sudanese and Eritrean migrants indefinitely, many of whom have fled bloodshed and persecution in their home countries.

Holot is the final stop in Israel’s immigration agenda. Once there, trapped and in limbo, the asylum seekers are unlawfully offered a repatriation fee to encourage them into accepting so-called “voluntary departure packages” and relocate to third-party African countries.

The law that forces them there came into effect in January 2012, allowing the government to put long-term illegal immigrants into detention centres for up to a year, and offer repatriation grants of $3 500.

But in September, the supreme court ordered the closure of Holot within 90 days. Justice Uzi Fogelman explained that Holot infringes on the right to human dignity: “Infiltrators do not lose one ounce of their right to dignity just because they reached the country in this way or another.”

More than 50 000 asylum seekers have arrived in Israel in the past decade, entering through the border with Egypt. But tensions around the presence of African migrants have always been high: in 2012 Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that “illegal infiltrators flooding the country” threatened the security and identity of the state.

In a speech in early December the interior and environment chair Miri Regev vowed that the centre will not close on December 22, as ruled by the supreme court.

“This law will have teeth, and it won’t be up to judges to determine our immigration policy, rather the elected government,” Regev has said.

During the making of a short film in April this year we heard fresh accounts of many former Holot detainees who have decided to return to East Africa out of despair only to be arrested by state authorities upon their arrival. They are then either imprisoned for treason or disloyalty for initially fleeing the country, or simply disappear without a trace.

All of the detainees have lived in Israel for at least five years. Many own businesses and speak fluent Hebrew; some are orphans who have just graduated from Israeli high schools. Their visible frustration at finding themselves in this situation is understandable.

Shortly after we visited, more than 800 men marched out of Holot and through the desert in the searing heat towards the Egyptian border. They demanded to be recognised as refugees released from the facility, issuing the following statement: “We have made a commitment to keep on struggling for our basic rights and we will never give up. Justice and equality will last forever.” – © Guardian News & Media 2014