Robert Bandanza
December 5th, 2009, 05:42 PM
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation will vote today on a bill regulating the status of asylum-seekers in Israel. The vote comes after many years without a policy, shirking the international convention on refugees and asylum-seekers.
The bill was initiated by a number of MKs, led by Haim Oron (New Movement-Meretz), Dov Khenin (Hadash) and Miri Regev (Likud).
The bill would mean that Israel would finally enshrine in legislation the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Refugees and asylum-seekers in Israel would then be able to demand their rights stemming from the convention.
The lack of clear-cut laws has meant that the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers have been curtailed, including subjecting them to long prison terms or deporting potential asylum-seekers soon after their arrival in Israel without investigating whether their lives could be endangered by so doing.
The UN convention requires Israel to meet certain minimum conditions in its treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers. It contains checks and balances to also take into account the interests of the host country, such as public safety.
Seven human rights groups in Israel have asked the ministerial committee on legislation to approve the bill "so as to correct a failure of almost 60 years, to remove a blot on the state of Israel and to place it in the same league as other advanced countries that have regulated by law their obligations to asylum-seekers and refugees."
Israel was one of 26 countries (and many Jewish organizations) that formulated the convention, which was a direct outcome of the treatment of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust - who were faced with closed doors worldwide as they tried to escape Europe.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1132928.html
The bill was initiated by a number of MKs, led by Haim Oron (New Movement-Meretz), Dov Khenin (Hadash) and Miri Regev (Likud).
The bill would mean that Israel would finally enshrine in legislation the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Refugees and asylum-seekers in Israel would then be able to demand their rights stemming from the convention.
The lack of clear-cut laws has meant that the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers have been curtailed, including subjecting them to long prison terms or deporting potential asylum-seekers soon after their arrival in Israel without investigating whether their lives could be endangered by so doing.
The UN convention requires Israel to meet certain minimum conditions in its treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers. It contains checks and balances to also take into account the interests of the host country, such as public safety.
Seven human rights groups in Israel have asked the ministerial committee on legislation to approve the bill "so as to correct a failure of almost 60 years, to remove a blot on the state of Israel and to place it in the same league as other advanced countries that have regulated by law their obligations to asylum-seekers and refugees."
Israel was one of 26 countries (and many Jewish organizations) that formulated the convention, which was a direct outcome of the treatment of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust - who were faced with closed doors worldwide as they tried to escape Europe.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1132928.html