Fear Mounts Among Africans Over Deportations

Many African migrants in the country are living now in a state of fear, more worried than ever about being deported.

“They told us in January they were removing our collective protection, but it’s only now that we’re seeing action in the field, and it’s starting to close in on us,” said Bernard Abbot, who came to Israel 15 years ago from the Ivory Coast.

“I’ve been living here many years and I never believed that there would come a day that they [the authorities] would start pursuing the few Ivory Coast citizens who live here,” he continued. “But this morning we understood that it will reach everyone, because they’ve arrested a woman and child from the community.

“It’s a hard situation, because people live full lives here, with families and children,” Abbot said. “You can’t hole up now at home and hope that they won’t come. Still, people aren’t going out unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

Ismail, a migrant from Darfur, is also afraid, even though the collective protection offered by authorities to citizens of northern Sudan, including those coming from Darfur, is still in place.

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