Saturday 8 September 2012

Israel begins mass deportation of Nigerians

In what looks like a
crackdown on
immigrants in their
country, Israel has
started a massive
deportation of Africans
comprising mainly
Nigerians in what they
called ‘operation clean
up’.
In the last few weeks
no fewer than 50
Nigerians have been
deported from the
middle east country for
reasons ranging from
what they termed
illegal stay, work
permit and other
flimsy excuses.
Due to the recent series
of offensive and racist
statements made by
Israeli politicians,
African diplomats in
Israel are afraid to
walk down the street,
said African
ambassadors in Israel
during a meeting with
Deputy Foreign
Minister Danny Ayalon.
The meeting, which
was attended by the
ambassadors of
Angola, Ghana, Nigeria,
Kenya, Ethiopia and the
Ivory Coast, was
recently held in the
Foreign Ministry’s
offices in Jerusalem,
Yedioth Ahronoth, an
Israeli newspaper
reported.This was after
the wife of the Ghanian
ambassador was
arrested by Israeli
police where she was
on shopping in Tel
Aviv.
Israeli’s claim that
immigrants are
responsible for the
ongoing series of rapes
and muggings
committed in their
country is a way of
calling a dog a bad
name in order to hang
it.
Reports from Tel Aviv
where most of the
immigrants live show
that most of them now
hide inside their
apartments without
going to work for fear
of being arrested while
on the street. ’Many
Nigerians living in
Israel are very law
abiding and go their
normal businesses’ said
an official of the
Nigerian community
who doesn’t want his
name in print.
The recent crackdown
has seen Isreaeli
authorities
arresting Nigerians
with families and
taking them to
detention camps
sometimes with their
very under aged
children where they
face harsh punitive
measures and untold
hardship before being
deported to their
country.
To worsen the
situation, the Nigerian
Embassy officials have
never intervened in
this ugly incidents
being meted on
Nigerians, our source
revealed
Mr Iweka [real name
withheld] from Enugu
state said he has been
living in Israel legally
since twelve years
working in a restaurant
but was deported on
the orders of his
employer who
wouldn’t want to pay
his accumulated
gratuity. He was
arrested in his
apartment by over
twenty security agents
and chained both legs
and hands and bundled
into a van even after
showing them his valid
papers and driven to
prison. His lawyer took
his case to court and
after spending two
months in the prison
under harsh conditions
was deported without
concluding his case. He
described is ordeal as a
racist, barbaric and
unhuman.
Member of the Israeli
Knesset Shlomo Molla
(Kadima) has warned
that, “The State has
failed to do its
diplomatic due
diligence .No one
wants to migrate here
if they’re doing well…
It doesn’t mean that
we shouldn’t try to
send them back, but
these events – abusing
them like that – that’s
wrong.
“I’ve seen case where
people where
physically hurt. If that’s
not incitement – what
is?” he wondered.
Member if Israeli
Knesset K Dov Khenin
(Hadash) read
testimonies given by
teens suspected of
assaulting migrants,
detailing the violent
abuse they had
perpetrated. He further
deplored the
government’s actions
against them.

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