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| By: Israel Insider staff |
| Published: June 24, 2007 |
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Hundreds of people, including refugees, activists and public figures, commemorated the fifth International Refugee Day in Jaffa, next to Tel Aviv, Saturday.
"We want to bring Israelis closer to the refugees," said Ran Goldstein, an activist for Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). "We must remember that a significant portion of the 1,800 refugees that currently reside in Israel have not been recognized by the establishment and are not eligible for social and healthcare benefits."
Refugees from Congo, Sudan, the Ivory Coast and Liberia attended the event. Garcia, 10, described the current situation in her native Congo.
"I want to thank you in the name of all the children of the refugees in Israel," she said in fluent Hebrew.
"As you know our parents fled to Israel along with the older children. In Congo, women are raped, children are abused and the situation is fragile. In such a place there is no future and, we, the children of the refugees want to thank the State of Israel and the UN's High Commission for Refugees for all their efforts," she said.
Organizations such as PHR, Amnesty, Mesila and the African Refugee Association in Israel were involved in the event.
Israel has a growing problem with African refugees crossing over its borders into the country. Since there is no adequate system with which to absorb them, and they come from countries with which Israel has no diplomatic relations, many are placed in Israeli prisons. If Israel deports them, they will most likely be killed in their native countries.
"The Jewish people [are] intimately familiar with the idea of refugee-seeking, I am ashamed to be a part of a nation that imprisons refugees," stated PHR chairperson Danny Filk in a speech at the event
"Displaced, scared people waiting for a passport are sent back to the countries they fled where they will probably be executed," he said. |
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