Sudan deal plunges migrants in Israel into new uncertainty

Usumain Baraka speaks impeccable Hebrew, considers Israelis among his best friends and can quote passs from Old Testament. But as a Sudanese asylum seeker, Baraka has legal status in Israel and lives a precarious life tered to whims of Israeli government.

w, after Israel and Sudan agreed to rmalize ties, Baraka is among 6,000 Sudanese in Israel once again fearing for ir fate. Israel alrey has indicated it will seek to settle migrant issue in upcoming talks with Sudan, whipping up trepidation in community that Israel might forcibly return m to Sudan, a place y say y fled because of conflict or persecution.

“If I return tomorrow or day after when re is official peace y are talking about, something awaits me re, and that’s danger,” said Baraka, 25, who fled Janjaweed militia attacks on his vill in Darfur at of nine.

Israel and Sudan anunced earlier this month y would rmalize ties, making Sudan third Arab country to do so in as many months.

anuncement brought satisfaction to Israelis. But after years of failed Israeli attempts to remove migrants, it has renewed fears among Sudanese who have long h an insecure existence in ir opted home.

African migrants, mainly from Sudan and Eritrea, began arriving in Israel in 2005 through its porous border with Egypt after Egyptian forces violently quashed a refugee demonstration and word spre of safety and job opportunities in Israel. Tens of thousands crossed desert border in often dangerous journeys.

Israel initially turned a blind eye to ir influx and many took up menial jobs in hotels and restaurants. But as ir numbers swelled, re was a backlash, with growing calls to expel new arrivals.

Israel considers vast majority of migrants to be job seekers and says it has legal obligation to keep m. Africans say y are asylum seekers who fled for ir lives and face renewed danger if y return. Many come from Darfur and or conflict-ridden regions.

Sudan's former leer, Omar al-Bashir, has been charged with gecide for a campaign of mass killings that took place in Darfur under his watch. area still experiences tribal clashes and rebel violence.

Under international law, Israel cant forcibly send migrants back to a country where ir life or liberty may be at risk. Critics accuse government inste of trying to coerce m into leaving.

Over years, Israel has detained thousands of migrants in remote desert prisons, left thousands of asylum requests open and offered cash payments to those who agreed to move to third African countries.

It also has built a barrier along border with Egypt that stopped influx and reached a deal with U.N. to resettle thousands of migrants in Western countries while allowing thousands of ors to remain in Israel — though deal was quickly scrapped under pressure from anti-migrant activists and hard-line legislators.

migrants' presence has long divided country. ir supporters say Israel, a country founded upon ashes of Holocaust and built up by Jewish refugees, should welcome those seeking refuge. Opponents claim migrants have brought crime to low-income south Tel Aviv neighborhoods where y have settled. Some Israeli politicians have labeled m infiltrators, with one calling m “a cancer” threatening country’s Jewish character.

“I believe y are ecomic migrants and y act as if y own place,” said Sheffi Paz, a prominent anti-migrant activist.

Publicly, Israeli leers have been guarded about ir plans. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli and Sudanese delegations would soon meet to “discuss cooperation in many fields, including in field of migration.” A spokeswoman for Israel's Interior Ministry declined to comment.

A top Sudanese military official with direct kwledge of early contacts with Israel said matter of returning migrants has t yet been discussed. He spoke on condition of anymity because he was t authorized to discuss matter in public.

Israel deported about 1,000 migrants back to South Sudan in 2012 after an Israeli court determined y were longer at risk in ir home country, which h just gained independence. But activists say some died re from disease and ors fled renewed conflict.

Israel has ackwledged in recent court proceedings that situation in Sudan remains volatile, and vocacy groups that work with migrants say that deporting m will come up against stiff legal challenges.

“If Israel will dare to deport Sudanese with open asylum claims it will be a grave violation of most fundamental principle of refugee convention,” said Sigal Rozen, public policy director at Hotline for Refugees and Migrants.

She said Israeli leers may neless be raising issue to prompt some Sudanese to leave voluntarily.

Migrants have alrey been hard-hit by coronavirus pandemic, ir jobs in restaurants and hotels threatened by repeated lockdowns. Without proper status in Israel, y are t entitled to claim unemployment insurance. Rozen said some sympatic employers have kept on migrant workers just to give m a lifeline.

In south Tel Aviv neighborhood where many migrants live, a pedestrian street typically lively with shops and restaurants was dreary on a recent day. Grey shutters sealed entrances to many businesses and some mask-wearing migrants lingered on stoops.

Baraka fled Darfur after his far was killed in front of him. He settled in a displacement camp along border with Ch before departing on a precarious journey rth, through Libya and Egypt, to be smuggled through desert into Israel, where he has lived for more than a dece.

He submitted an asylum request to Israel in 2013 and it remains open. While he welcomes any deal that stabilizes relations between Sudan and Israel, he doesn't believe that opens door for his return.

“I do believe in what y’re talking about w, rmalization between Sudan and Israel," Baraka said. "I support it, but we need to kw who it’s being done with, when to do it and how to do it.”