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After police beat them up and took them back to the Holot detention center, African refugees remain defiant; photo from Saharonim  via ‎ צעדת החופש MarchForFreedom‎

 

Updates June 30: This is the message that was posted by the asylum seekers who were evacuated from the camp in Nitzana forest:

English: “Today at 19:15, Israeli police and immigration forces started to violently evacuate us from our compound by the Israel-Egyptian border. We have been taken to Saharonim prison. Some of us have injuries including to the face and limbs. In protest of this violence, and our ongoing imprisonment we have now started a HUNGER STRIKE. We call on UNHCR to find an urgent solution for this situation and to protect our rights as people who have come to Israel to seek asylum and shelter.” Source

 Hebrew:  זו ההצהרה שפרסמו מבקשי המקלט שפונו הערב מהמחנה הזמני ביער ניצנה: “היום ב-19:15, משטרת ישראל וכוחות ההגירה החלו לפנות אותנו באלימות מהמחנה שלנו ליד הגבול הישראלי-מצרי. נלקחנו לכלא סהרונים. חלקנו סובלים מפציעות בפנים ובגפיים. כצעד מחאה נגד האלימות והכליאה המתמשכת שלנו, אנו פותחים בשביתת רעב. אנו קוראים לנציבות הפליטים של האו”ם למצוא פתרון בדחיפות למצבנו ולהגן על על זכויותינו כאנשים שהגיעו לישראל כדי למצוא מקלט ומחסה.”  Source 

This is an interview with head of UNHCR Israel, via Freedom4Refugees in Israel- International Solidarity

Earlier, June 29: 

Around 1,000 asylum seekers walk out of the Holot open detention facility but were stopped short of the Egyptian border. They announced they will no longer seek acceptance by the Israeli government and demanded that the United Nations take responsibility and resettle them in other countries.

Police gave asylum seekers the ultimatum that they had 15 minutes to board buses back to Holot. The asylum seekers refused. A large number of riot police were waiting offsite. More information from +972 Magazine. 

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Israeli soldiers try to stop African asylum seekers as they march from the Holot detention center, in which they are jailed, to the Israeli-Egyptian border in protest of Israel's asylum policies, calling on the UN and the Red Cross to intervene, Negev, June 27, 2014. More than 800 Asylum seekers tried to reach to the border fence with Egypt, saying Israeli does not check their asylum requests and therefore they are asking to be resettled in third countries. The group was stopped by the Israeli army and spent the night in a small forest located a few hundred meters from the border. (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

An Israeli soldier tries to stop African asylum seekers as they march from the Holot detention center, in which they are jailed, to the Israeli-Egyptian border in protest of Israel's asylum policies, calling on the UN and the Red Cross to intervene, Negev, June 27, 2014. More than 800 Asylum seekers tried to reach to the border fence with Egypt, saying Israeli does not check their asylum requests and therefore they are asking to be resettled in third countries. The group was stopped by the Israeli army and spent the night in a small forest located a few hundred meters from the border. (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Israeli soldiers try to stop African asylum seekers as they march from the Holot detention center, in which they are jailed, to the Israeli-Egyptian border in protest of Israel's asylum policies, calling on the UN and the Red Cross to intervene, Negev, June 27, 2014. More than 800 Asylum seekers tried to reach to the border fence with Egypt, saying Israeli does not check their asylum requests and therefore they are asking to be resettled in third countries. The group was stopped by the Israeli army and spent the night in a small forest located a few hundred meters from the border. (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

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#MarchForFreedom

This is a very violent escalation of the refugees crisis which has been going on months now, their protests are ongoing; read here.

The torture and horrors endured by the refugees until they reach what they hope to be a safe place have been documented, read here how refugees have been tortured for ransom in Sinai desert. Being jailed at Holot is so bad for them that they are willing to risk being captured, tortured and possibly murdered by human traffickers: on Friday they got out of Holot center and started to march towards the Israeli border with Egypt. They demanded that police let them cross over to Egypt, because they would not accept one more day of being jailed just for being refugees. The army stopped them from getting near the border fence. The refugees did not go back; they improvised a refugees camp near the border demanding the United Nations to take responsibility for their situation and help them be fully recognized as persons, or help them get out of Israel. On Sunday afternoon, they were surrounded by heavy police forces who attacked them and grabbed them and forcefully took them to busses so they can be taken back to the detention center. The refugees started to run towards the border with Egypt to escape the cops; cops could not get 200 of them, it seems.

African asylum seekers march from the Holot detention center, in which they are jailed, to the Israeli-Egyptian border in protest of Israel's asylum policies, calling on the UN and the Red Cross to intervene, Negev, June 27, 2014. More than 800 Asylum seekers tried to reach to the border fence with Egypt, saying Israeli does not check their asylum requests and therefore they are asking to be resettled in third countries. The group was stopped by the Israeli army and spent the night in a small forest located a few hundred meters from the border. (Photo by Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

via Activestills.org

African asylum seekers wake up in their makeshift camp after spending the night in a forest a few hundred meters from the Egyptian border, June 28, 2014. More than 800 Asylum seekers walked out of the Holot open detention facility and tried to reach the border fence with Egypt, saying Israeli dose not check their asylum request and therefore they asking for intervention from the UN and Red Cross as well as to leave the country. (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

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