Torturing Them out of the Country
The Israeli Asylum Seeker ‘System’ and Its Torture-Like Policies
abstract
This essay will focus on the Israeli immigration policies relating to asylum seekers, showing how they can be qualified as a form of (mainly psychological) torture. Firstly an outline of Israel’s employment of torture against political dissidents will be laid out, together with an analysis of why administrative detention can be understood as a form of torture too. The attention will then be moved to the treatment of African asylum seekers, describing the harsh conditions they have to endure while staying in Israel prior to their deportation from the country, emphasising the features which can qualify them as forms of torture.
Keywords: Immigration policies • Israel • Asylum seekers • Administrative detention • Torture