By Amelia Colón, 10th grade.

The attacks of October 7th, 2023 that set off the war between Israel and Hamas killed 1,100 people, 3 of which were asylum-seekers. This created a wave of volunteerism amongst asylum-seekers to try to win legal documents, in which they started to enroll in civilian command centers. This made Israel realize that this is something they can exploit. Because of this, Israel has been recruiting African asylum-seekers for the military, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, with the promise that they will be granted legal residency in return. 

According to the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention, refugees are people who are recognized internationally as not being able to return to their country of origin because of a  “well-founded fear of being persecuted”. Asylum seekers are people waiting for this recognition. For people who can prove jewish heritage, obtaining permanent residency in Israel proves to be an easy task. However, for those that don’t have jewish heritage, it can be extremely difficult. Because of this, the requests of African asylum-seekers for residency are often pending for several years, leaving them in “legal-limbo”. 

Israel’s government decided to exploit this and offer these people permanent residency in Israel, in return for their service in the war against Gaza. However, African asylum-seekers were put in this position by the inefficiency of the Israeli government itself. In a way, they are promising that they will do their job, which they should do regardless, in return for the service of foreigners in a job that can cost them their lives. 

“Asylum status is granted due to persecution, not as part of a deal,” said Julia Grignon, professor of international humanitarian law and research director at the Institute for Strategic Research (IRSEM). “Enlisting in the military should never be a condition for obtaining refugee status.”

This practice is heavily unethical. First of all, it exploits people who have already exited their country for some reason or another, and are in search of safety. They move to Israel in the search of this protection, but end up fighting in the military and risking their lives instead. They do this for the vague promise that they will be safer after they risk their lives in this way. 

“Military conscription of refugees by a host state is inconsistent with host countries primary responsibility to ensure the security and protection of refugees,” said Rula Amin, a UNHCR’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) spokesperson. 

The main problem with the crisis with African Asylum seekers though is that since they are not recognized as refugees, they don’t really have the same rights as refugees. Refugees have specific protections that state that the host country has a responsibility to protect them. For people who aren’t recognized as refugees though, the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention states that 

“Nothing in this Convention shall prevent a Contracting State, in time of war or other grave and exceptional circumstances, from taking provisionally measures which it considers to be essential to the national security in the case of a particular person, pending a determination by the Contracting State that that person is in fact a refugee and that the continuance of such measures is necessary in his case in the interests of national security”

What this paragraph implies, essentially, is that if in time of war Israel considers it necessary to keep African asylum seekers without recognition as refugees for their national security, it can do so. The UNHCR lists in their activities for refugee protection the following line:

“Assisting States to enact or revise national refugee legislation, including administrative instructions and operational guidelines, and to implement national refugee status determination procedures.”

This means that part of the activities a country should participate in for refugee protection are refugee status determination procedures. Israel is purposely not doing these, which negates asylum-seekers of their right to these services. And yet, after all these promises of vague “safety”, the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants has expressed concern over the lack of transparency, stating that while rumors of the benefits of military service have been circulating, the organization has not been able to confirm any cases in which what has been promised has been delivered.

Israel has decided to hire African asylum-seekers for the military, and made an interesting deal: if they fight in Gaza, then they can obtain refugee status. Not only have they contradicted themselves, as a contracting state to displaced persons should have the intention to protect them, but they have also not even fulfilled their promise. They have intentionally deprived African asylum-seekers of their right to refugee determination procedures, and instead of protecting them, has decided to toss them into their war instead. Israel’s reckless actions are putting at risk the 45,000 African asylum seekers, putting in question the ethical guidelines when it comes to its war with Gaza.

Sources:

Convention and Protocol Relating to the status of refugees. UNHCR. (2010, December). https://www.unhcr.org/media/convention-and-protocol-relating-status-refugees 

JONAH, A. (2024, September 16). Israeli military recruits African asylum-seekers for war in Gaza. France 24. https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240916-israel-military-recruits-african-asylum-seekers-for-gaza-strip-war-hamas-sudan-eritrea 

Donmez, B. (2024, September 18). UN refugee agency says reports “very concerning” about israeli recruitment of asylum seekers for gaza offensive. AA. Protection. UNHCR. (n.d.). https://www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/protect-human-rights/protection