ICERAS

The government is in contact with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in an attempt to reach a new agreement on the status and departure African asylum seekers in Israel, Interior Minister Arye Dery told the State Control Committee on Wednesday morning.

“The contacts with the UN [Refugee Agency] are continuing in an attempt to reach a new agreement,” said Dery. “The discussions with the UN have not ended, as of now there is no breakthrough.” The negotiations were restarted last week, said a source involved in the matter.

Dery said no reason exists to reopen the Holot detention facility in the Negev, which was closed in March. It will only be reopened if the law is changed and the detention of African refugees there is allowed legally. The government will continue to examine asylum requests and encourage asylum seekers to leave voluntarily by providing those who agree to leave with financial incentives, said Dery.

“Over the past four months, the requests of 8,000 asylum seekers have been dealt with,” he told the committee. In addition, 1,600 refugees whose requests were denied are now allowed to resubmit them because of delays in processing them, he added. The Population and Immigration Authority in the Interior Ministry has added 20 positions and opened a new facility in Bnei Brak to handle the asylum requests. As for the refugees from Darfur, Dery said a meeting will be held with Netanyahu on the issue in two weeks.

Committee chairwoman MK Shelly Yacimovich (Zionist Union) said: “It is impossible to ignore the elephant in the room: The hasty, unnecessary and unjustified cancellation of the prime minister’s agreement.” Yacimovich said the government reversed itself for irrelevant reasons and it is hard to understand why they have not gone back to the agreement. She urged the government to reinstate it and told Dery that from the tone of his voice, she understood that he too was not pleased with the cancellation of the agreement and he should convince Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reinstate it. READMORE