Eritrean asylum-seekers told to leave Tel Aviv area

Thousands of Eritrean asylum-seekers in Israel have been told they will have to leave the greater Tel Aviv area and move to other parts of the country.

"This measure was taken to ensure that Tel Aviv does not suffer an influx of refugees and asylum-seekers living in shelters," said Sabine Haddad, a spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of the Interior.

Leaders of the Eritrean community said there was growing "bad blood" between the state and the Eritrean community in Israel, which numbers over 4,500 people, and that tensions were rising.

About 2,000 Eritreans arrived before December 2007 and received six-month work visas from the ministry. However, those who have arrived since the start of 2008 have received a permit called a "conditional release" which does not grant them the right to live near Tel Aviv or work there, and contains a vague clause saying they "must cooperate with the government".

For those with the half-year work permits issued at the end of last year, June 2008 came and went without the permits being renewed, causing employment problems.

"Many have lost their jobs in these two months," said Steve, an asylum-seeker who has lived in Israel for nearly a year, adding that people have trouble working without a visa.

One-month work permits

On 4 August the ministry invited eligible refugees to renew their permits. However, the number of people who showed up overwhelmed the authorities, who also had computer problems that day, and in the end only one-month permits were issued.

"We cannot find a job for just one month," explained Steve.

The new one-month permit, officials explained, means all new asylum-seekers, as well as many already settled in Tel Aviv, would be barred from living or working there.

Eritrean migrants are concerned about education for their children and finding jobs in areas where local Israelis suffer from high unemployment.

"Only in Tel Aviv can asylum-seekers, refugees and migrant workers find kindergartens they can afford," said Sigal Rozen, from the Hotline for Migrant Workers, an Israeli advocacy-group.

Violence?

Interior Ministry spokesman Haddad said the permit-issuance process on 4 August had turned violent: "They argued and were abusive and violent towards our workers, we had to call in a security guard to control the situation," she said.

Issayas B. Debru, an Eritrean community leader, said his people had merely been trying to obtain information and promises that the technical glitches would not harm their chances of receiving six-month permits.

Debru blamed the authorities for refusing to extend the permits of three community leaders.

A UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) official in Tel Aviv, Sharon Harel, said the problems were "the birth pangs" of Israel's system for registering refugees and asylum-seekers. She said she could understand the logic of making sure the migrants were spread out in a sensible way, but added that there might be some truth in the allegations that work could be hard to find outside the Tel Aviv area.

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