A dilapidated concrete house in Tel Aviv is the current homestead of 340 African refugees. Most have come from the war-torn regions of Darfur. Others from Eritrea, Ethiopia and the Ivory Coast, crowding the poorly ventilated corridors and rooms.
Some paid smugglers to get them first through Egypt and then into Israel, a country that prides itself for its willingness to welcome the persecuted. But for the estimated 6000 African refugees who have made the perilous crossing the welcome is bittersweet.
The Knesset has yet to implement a national policy for the refugees who now hover in limbo; classified as de facto stateless. Instead, the responsibility falls on local NGOs, civil society and the good will of volunteers. And yet Israel ratified the 1954 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (pdf) in 1958.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has no information on stateless persons in Israel. But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is quick to harp , "A tsunami," was his comment.
With no legal status, the stateless do not enjoy the protections of normal citizens, nor even those granted to officially recognized refugees. When the shelters are full, they are forced into the streets. Many are arrested and sent to prison.
Victoria from Sudan and her 7 year-old son, Joseph, spent more than a month in an Israeli prison. Not because they committed a crime, but because they had no papers, no status. They were later released with the aid of a local NGO and sent to temporary shelter at the Kibbutz Eilot.
Others are less fortunate and either remain in prison or are simply deported.
For more information, view this short documentary by the Guardian.
