NGO: Migrants should go back to Sudan post-normalization

• Published date: 17 January 2021
• Date: 17 January 2021
• Author: YONAH JEREMY BOB

In a recent interview, Yonatan Jakubowicz, executive director of the Israeli Immigration Policy Center, an NGO that campaigns for deporting Africans who arrived in Israel illegally, said that "Sudan is an interesting case because we have developments at the same time on two fronts."

He was referring to Jerusalem's recent normalization deal with Khartoum as well as certain recent rulings and policy decisions by various European judicial bodies.

"It is important to stress, which people don't always understand, that the main issue with returning [African migrants] to Sudan in general was that Israel didn't have [diplomatic] relations with Sudan. That was the official position," he said.

Jakubowicz said that, "regardless of people who come from different areas – Darfur, the Nuba Mountains – there was a claim by pro-migrant NGOs that even people who were economically [motivated] migrants… and even people from Arab descent, would be in danger if they went back to Sudan because they would be punished for entering Israel and being on Israeli soil."

Summarizing what he called a contradiction in this argument, he said, "They weren't refugees when they left – but they became refugees after they left."

He acknowledged that "there is some basis for this claim, because Sudan and Israel not only did not have relations, but also viewed each other as enemy states," noting a Sudanese law carrying a 10-year prison sentence for those entering Israel.

"But de facto that wasn't the situation. Population and Immigration Borders Authority (PIBA) statistics say that close to 6,000 refugees went back directly to Sudan between 2012 and the start of the pandemic in 2020," he said.

Continuing, he said "the truth is that the Sudanese government did not put in much effort to track people coming back," and most were not harassed at all.

RETURNING TO his main argument that Israel-Sudan normalization should be a game-changer for legally sending Sudanese back to their country he said that, "with the new development now, that claim is off the table. I cannot say high profile activists with a specific case might not face danger. But as a broad claim, Israel signed an agreement [with Sudan] so there is no broad danger."

Interestingly, Jakubowicz said that, "The majority of the Sudanese already left Israel. Of the around 6,500 Sudanese left in Israel, about 4,500 claim to be from Darfur – and another 2,000 can return [to Sudan] theoretically immediately."

He agreed that there were some...