Before he was summoned to Holot, Israel’s open-air detention center for asylum-seekers, Gebremeskel Tsehaya, known as Gary, worked as a cook frying falafel and chopping salad at a small restaurant in Tel Aviv. Because Gary is a single Eritrean man, Israel’s government says he will soon face a choice: accept a plane ticket out of the country or go to prison. African asylum-seekers are a crucial source of labor in the kitchens of nearly every Tel Aviv eatery, and indignant restaurant owners have waged a battle with the government over its intensifying campaign to deport them.
For years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has openly discussed his intentions to expel the roughly 40,000 African migrants currently living in Israel — a population comprised of 27,500 Eritreans, 7,900 Sudanese and 2,600 citizens of other African countries, according to Israel’s Interior Ministry. But in January, the ministry advanced its plan to deport 20,000 of the population by 2020, starting this April. Migrants began receiving early February notices proclaiming they will face indefinite imprisonment if they do not self-deport within 60 days.
