NGOs Petitioned – and the Collective Deportation of South Sudanese Is Suspended

Refugees in Israel, photo by Trillia Fidei Bagwell

Ruling on a petition filed this morning by several human rights organizations, Jerusalem District Court Judge Yigal Marzel issued a temporary order preventing the Ministry of Interior from revoking the collective protection previously afforded to the South Sudanese community in Israel and from deporting thousands of people to South Sudan.
 
The petitioners – ASSAF Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, the African Refugee Development Center (ADRC), the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Hotline for Migrant Workers, and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel – were represented by the Clinic for Refugee Rights at the University of Tel Aviv. The basis of the petitioners’ argument was concern for the safety and well-being of the deportees and the claim that the current situation in South Sudan is neither safe nor stable.
 
The rights organizations’ petition was further bolstered today by an independent recommendation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to delay the deportations to South Sudan because of the deterioration of the security and humanitarian conditions there over the past months.
 
Orit Marom, Advocacy Coordinator at ASSAF, stated: “We are pleased with the court’s decision and welcome the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ recognition of the hard realities in South Sudan – that deportation at such time would be tantamount to a terrible sentence for the families and children. The South Sudanese refugees in Israel are taking a brief sigh of relief and hoping that in the coming days the Prime Minister will decide to continue granting them protection and thus spare their lives from war, violence and hunger.  We hope that in the coming days the Ministry of the Interior will renew the status of the Sudanese community so that its members can return to their places of work.”
 
Simon Mayer, a south Sudanese activist visiting Israel, thanked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its recommendations and expressesed his hope that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will, in the spirit of Passover (the festival of freedom), spare the lives of the South Sudanese refugees, and continue to protect the community until the situation in South Sudan stabilizes so they can return there safely.