25.03.26, Ran Shimoni, Haaretz
The Israel Defense Forces deported four asylum seekers from Sudan on Sunday after they were caught crossing the border from Jordan, despite a prohibition against doing so when there is information indicating that their return would put their lives in real danger.
Since their deportation earlier this week, their whereabouts are unknown, and their friends have been trying to locate them, but to no avail. The IDF spokesperson has not responded to the report so far despite being asked about the issue on Tuesday.
The four asylum seekers, residents of the Darfur region in Sudan in their twenties and thirties, fled their homeland about two months ago due to the war between the Sudanese army and the RSF militia. They escaped the massacres that have been occurring in the region for the past three years and the widespread humanitarian crisis. According to estimates by international human rights organizations, between 11 and 15 million people have been displaced from their homes.
“Their families broke apart, some of their relatives were murdered, and others fled to different places,” says Zaki, their friend, a Darfur native living in Israel. According to him, they initially arrived in Jordan, but since it does not allow asylum applications and does not provide protection or minimal living conditions for refugees, they tried to cross the border on his advice. “I told them to come here, that it’s a risk to enter through the border – but it’s their best chance,” he says.
Since 2017, Israel has provided partial protection to asylum seekers from the Darfur region and other areas in Sudan. In cases of new asylum seekers who have recently entered Israel, a non-return policy is effectively implemented due to the war there.
Thousands of asylum seekers who have lived in Israel for many years are eligible for temporary residency status in accordance with government decisions over the years and court rulings. In January 2024, an Israeli court ruled that asylum seekers from Sudan must be granted residency permits in Israel, after the Interior Ministry failed to comply with a High Court of Justice decision to examine their applications, some of which were submitted many years ago.
The only way for the army and the state to deport those entering from the Jordan border is called a “hot return,” which is the almost immediate return of someone who has crossed the border. According to this deportation procedure, which was revealed thanks to a freedom of information request submitted by the Hatzlacha association, the person must be deported within 12 hours, or within 24 hours if it is during Sabbaths or holidays.
According to the procedures, the deportation must be coordinated directly or indirectly with bodies in the destination country, as well as the local Red Cross or peacekeeping forces. However, the procedure includes an important clause that is difficult to implement on the ground due to language barriers. According to this clause, an immediate return will not be carried out if, during the initial questioning, a substantiated claim arises that the person’s return to their country of origin would put them at real risk to their life or liberty, or if they present a substantiated claim that they are entitled to refugee status. In this situation, a decision on deportation will be made by the Interior Ministry.
However, Haaretz has learned that the four were not transferred to the Population and Immigration Authority at all, as is customary when a person is caught crossing the border and as is required when dealing with individuals who are clearly asylum seekers.
Now, after having been returned to their country, the Sudanese community in Israel is struggling to understand what happened to the four asylum seekers. An acquaintance in Jordan reported that they did not return to the place from which they left for the border. “I don’t sleep all night; we’re trying to figure out where they are, and no one knows,” says Zaki, their friend. “We don’t know anything about them.”
The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants petitioned the High Court of Justice back in 2007 against the border return policy, which was carried out without a hearing and contrary to the commitments the state undertook during the petition’s deliberations – primarily, to ensure that asylum seekers who claimed refugee status during their field questioning were not returned.
Attorney Neta Mishli, head of the hotline’s legal department, stated that “for several years now, we have been encountering a disturbing phenomenon of hot returns at the eastern border. This is in complete contradiction to the district court’s ruling and to procedures that should also be known to IDF soldiers at the border. This is a basic human right that must be protected even in times of war. It is unacceptable that we continue to discover disappearances, hot returns, and even deaths at the border – and nothing changes.”
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