200 Sudanese asylum seekers to receive residency

“Yesterday we received a letter from the Attorney General's office notifying us that 200 Darfuris are going to be granted residency status. It is the result of pressure from the courts in a number of different cases including our threat that we will lodge a contempt of court case regarding the government's failure to implement the judges' orders in the Anti-Infiltration Law decision in which they told the state that they must answer asylum applications.

There are reasons to be hesitant about what this means. It is an arbitrary decision and an arbitrary number. It is 'residency status' on humanitarian grounds rather than refugee status. However, this comes directly from a meeting between the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Interior Arye Dery and the Attorney General. They have clearly heard our voice and felt our more than 10 years of legal work, public campaigning and government lobbying.

The article that appears on the front page of today's Haaretz reads, "The decision to grant a number of Darfur nationals a legal status was finally achieved not only by individual trials, but by pressure exerted by the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants. In January, Hotline attorney Asaf Weitzen asked Deputy Attorney General Dina Zilber to intervene and instruct the Population and Immigration Authority to examine the Darfur nationals' asylum applications at once, in keeping with the authority's obligation to the court. Pressure by the Attorney General led to Dery's agreement"

We are going to continue fighting for a just asylum system for those fleeing persecution because today shows us that we are making change and that a different reality is possible.”