by-Hagai-Elad
The Legal Clinics at the College of Management Academic Studies, The Refugee Rights Clinic at the University of Tel Aviv, the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) have filed petitions to the Supreme Court demanding that the State address serious deficiencies at the Holot facility.
The petitions relate to:
* Serious crowding in the facility (HCJ 4602/16);
* The ban on bringing personal belongings into the facility, and the unsatisfactory equipment provided by the IPS (Israel Prison Service) (HCJ 4386/16);
* The lack of educational and recreational activities (HCJ 4388/16), including the lack of computers (HC 4389/16); and
* The disgraceful services provided by the Population and Immigration Authority within the facility (HCJ 4391/16).
These petitions have been added to another pending petition, which relates to the prohibition on bringing food into the facility (available here in Hebrew).
The petitions emphasize that the Holot facility has no public or cohesive operating procedures. As a result, in the absence of rules, the IPS operates as they do in prisons, even though Holot has not been defined as such. According to the petitioners, the problematic situation in Holot is not accidental and is designed to break the spirit of detainees so that they will agree to leave.
For more information in Hebrew, please click here.
